Applejack
by Mice
Summary: Bobby's Drake and Hank McCoy (Beast & Iceman) go on wacky astral plane adventures in the head of an ex-girlfriend the night before her wedding day. Part 9: Andy Warhol, black swans, and the red rooster feather. Also, what is the coolest job for a parent of a superhero?
1. Chapter 1

**Applejack**  
>By Mice<p>

**-Prologue-**

I can't remember when I began to have a perfect memory. This is one of the many contradictions I have. Nobody would have suspected; I wasn't a good student and I never had my shit together. I wasn't a nerd, I was a jock in high school. And even with a perfect memory, there are memories I can't access. I try, but they feel too hot - as if to warn me about going to close.

I refer to these memories as "the sun". Memories that I know comprise the sun include my trip to New York City when I was seven, a night with Dr. Hank McCoy, the night I tried to kill myself, and the day my heart broke. I remember how these begin. What I don't remember is how they end. I don't want to remember how they end. They must be terrible.

There may be more. There's a thought.

These thoughts are why I choose to stay in what I call "the moon". Facts. Data. Events. Trivia. Folderol. I can list every ingredient in a Twinkie (Hostess, Bimbo Bakeries, and forty-seven homemade recipes in order of best reviewed) and name every ruler of every kingdom in any known galaxy by date.

But never the emotions. Those stay on the sun. Where I can't touch. Where I don't want to touch.

Three men and one boy are in my head via a telepathic bridge, each one in the form of my choosing. All are knights.

I have chosen my ex-boyfriend in this reality, Bobby Drake, and my husband from another dimension, Drake'son (who is also Bobby Drake) to head towards the sun. Bobby is a silver knight who carries a sheild with a Pegasus symbol. Drake'son is the golden knight whose sheild has a unicorn. This means something to me.

Coming towards the moon is Hank. He will not like the fact that he is a centaur, but will comment on the irony of it.

Bert Bass, the boy and cousin of the Bobby's, is headed in what I can only imagine is the dark ocean. I don't even go there, not even in my sleep. A hippocamp. He is disappointed he is not furry, but happy that he is blue.

We are not alone in here. Aside from the mental demons that everyone has, my mother is here. This is who these men and one boy were sent to retrieve. I look forward to her removal.

It would have taken too long that Dr. Emily Clay-Poole is also here. It was an accident. After trying to repair her techno-organic body, my body began to absorb her. I had no idea until I woke up with a metal tip to my tongue - the tip that she caused me to bite off during a fight.

At first, I kept cutting it off, repulsed by how my body was not my own. But I was so tired of lisping...and it provided a clue to me about the true nature of my powers. I'm not just a perfect memory.

I absorb information. I can do this through any of my senses.

I've absorbed another woman's DNA. I am not sure how I have done this. I am hoping I have not absorbed her personality. (I hope I'm more exciting than oatmeal...) I do enjoy the use of my tongue and something else she took from me years ago - having a unique repair function has come in handy. Sean Cassidy ran my head through a wall a few months back. From where it was to what I showed Hank was a miracle in healing. I have no scar currently.

My body is not my own and neither is my mind.

I hope the Bobby's can retrieve my mother and that Bert will be okay.

I am lying on the moon, Waiting for Hank, wondering if Sean knows...

I was a waitress, I am an engineer, I will be married. I am in need of saving once again and I couldn't do it myself. I don't deserve the kindness of these men.

I'm just Annie Peckenpaugh.

Just a horse.


	2. Chapter 2

**Applejack**

**Part 1: The Sun**

**By Mice**

**_-The Sun, the Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh's Mind-_**

In the desert and under the sun, there were two knighted Robert Drakes on horseback, one silver, one gold. One from an alternate dimension, one from this reality.

The silence was too much for Drake'son, the Robert Drake from an alternate dimension. "You are most peculiar, Bobby."

"Yeah?"

"We've been riding in this desert for what seems like ages and you haven't asked me one question." Drake'son shook his head. "Have you no curiosity?"

"It's not like you've asked me any question, either, you know..."

Drake'son smiled. "You forget. I've been around your friends...more importantly, your women. I know much about you. There is little more I am curious about."

"'My women'?" Bobby liked the sound of it, but it also hit him hard in the stomach.

"They have feelings, Bobby. You must have known that they would miss you if you went away."

"Yeah, well, that's not my experience." He looked at Drake'son, who maintained his eye-patch and rugged appearance in the astral plane. "Annie would never let me apologize to her."

"She might have found closure before you were ready to give it."

Bobby stopped his horse. "You two didn't do anything, did you?"

"Why do you ask? Would it upset you to know?" Drake'son replied, moving his horse nearer Bobby's.

"Maybe."

"She was my wife where I came from. I do not think I needed any permission."

"Before or after she got engaged to Cassidy?"

Drake'son smiled again. "After."

"You're pretty smug for encouraging her to cheat on her fiance."

"It wasn't the first time I managed that." Drake'son moved in closer to Bobby, their horses comfortably grazing on sand. "When I met her in my timeline, Annie was engaged to Hank. I talked her out of it." Drake'son began to ride his horse again. "Shall we get going? If memory serves, I think we're getting closer..."

"How?"

"Well, I have done this procedure before and the sun was a key -"

"No, how did you steal her from Hank?" This idea, that he would ever be able to woo a woman away from Hank, was more exciting than the idea of having an alternate time line version of him.

"By giving her what Hank never could."

Bobby stared at him waiting for an answer. "Well?"

Drake'son sighed, wondering how his alternate version of himself could be so oblivious. "Absolute adoration. With Hank's head being buried in his lab all the time - before ironically being buried alive in his lab and considered dead for a few years before -" Drake'son saw Bobby give him a confused look. "A tale for another time. The point is, Hank neglected her and took her adoration for granted. I, in turn, made myself available to her, emotionally, physically - whatever she needed. As a result, we bonded."

"I don't know whether you're a jerk for doing that to Hank or a bad ass because I would never be able to do that."

"That's just your self doubt. That is our difference."

"I know I got insecurities a go-go - everybody does. Even you!" Bobby accused, but desperately wanting to see at least one version of himself be confident as he was never.

"I have them. I do not let them rule me. Look there!" Drake'son stopped his horse and withdrew his sword. "The sun is getting closer to us."

"And that's good?" Bobby slowly withdrew his sword. He wondered if Drake'son's was bigger.

"I am assuming that it is where we need to go. Are you ready to do something incredibly brave, Bobby?"

"'Doing something brave' usually translates into 'doing something extremely stupid'..."

"It's all in how you say it." Drake'son pointed to the sun with his sword. "We're going in, Bobby."

Bobby froze. "I don't want to."

"I figured you'd say that." Drake'son tapped Bobby's horse with his sword that sent her running wildly to the sun, unable to process Bobby's commands in favor of her own pain. "Adventures!" Drake'son shouted as he charged in after him.

_**-Hyperion Hotel, October 4th-**_

"You were able to retrieve her without much trouble, I take it."

"Aye." Sean placed the unconscious body on the bed. "What do ye plan to do with her?"

"I've been asked to prep her as a receptacle for a soul. After that, I'm taking a hot bath with a bottle of champagne." Emma Frost smiled, unable to resist. "Care to join me? The bath only, no more booze for you."

"If ye didn't manage to nail me in Massachusetts, woman, what makes ye think you'd have a chance tonight?"

"Oh, Sean, really. You make it sound like I've been pining over you. Truth is, I'm concerned."

"I'm doin' fine."

"That's not what everyone is thinking and I should know." Emma saw the anger in his eye. "I will admit, Sean - I never saw you as an abusive type."

"It was an accident."

Emma felt his shame. At least he had that, still. "Did it ever happen with Moira? How about Mauve-"

Sean took deep breaths, resisting the urge to break something. "No harm ever came to them by my hand."

Emma frowned. "Not while sober, at least. Don't think I haven't been keeping tabs on you."

"Don't ye have anything else better to do, like shopping for new and expensive ways to be as close to naked as possible?"

"Sean, you may attack my character all you like, but my fashion?" Emma shook her head. "That's low, even for you. No, my concern comes from not just what I've heard whispered about Annie, but direct reports from Paige, Monet and Jubilee. Before we thought you all were dead and after."

"I liked bein' dead," Sean admitted. "Bein' dead was easy. I don't know what I want anymore."

"Then why on earth are you marrying the...oh, what are we calling her these days...the Barnyard Belle? The Walking Mattress from Wyoming?"

"Don't call her that. She has enough issues with all ye ladies as it is."

"So you can be tender about her, Sean?" Emma cocked her head playfully. "After what she did with Drake'son?"

Sean remained quiet. She knew he knew.

"Do you know she still continues to proposition Hank? Even tonight?"

More quiet, but she felt his anger.

"Sean, why on earth are you with her?"

"She saved me, Emma." Sean looked down. "As much as I hate bein' alive, I haveta do it. And she makes it easier."

"Even if she isn't true to you?"

"As long as she comes home ta me."

Emma studied her former co-headmaster, knowing him in ways that the other X-Men could not. "There's something you're addicted to."

Sean stood silent.

"Something...that takes the edge off. Something that..." Emma let her mind graze Sean's. She saw the pain of the past and present, but tempered. Almost faded. A mushed pile of faces of men who Sean had kicked bloody with his boots. The memory of finding out Mauve was dead. Watching Moira die. Watching Sean die. They only seemed painful to look at, but there was a dissociation. "You can't feel the pain, can you?"

"Aye. And it's because of her."

_**-The Sun, the Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh's Mind-**_

"I thought the sun would be hot."

"It is hot."

"Yeah, I know, but hotter."

"This is pretty hot."

"Dude, we're the Iceman. It takes a lot for us to call it hot."

"I'm not Iceman."

"But you're me."

"I'm Drake'son."

"AKA, Bobby Drake."

"I'm an empath, Bobby. That's all I am."

Bobby frowned. "Oh. So I'm only fucked up in this world."

"I am sure that there are many worlds where you are fucked up."

"Gee, thanks." Bobby looked around on the inside of the sun. "I thought it would be scarier. It actually feels familiar...like..." A piece of paper floated down with the sound of a giggle echoing far away. Bobby caught it. "It feels like that night."

Drake'son peered over and saw the drawing a semi-nude Annie. "Did you draw that?"

Bobby nodded. "It was one of the greatest nights of my life."

"How are you feeling right now?"

"Have you ever been on heroin?"

"No. Have you?"

Bobby shook his head. "You go to rehab a few times and everybody either thinks you're a junkie or can score you some coke...just sayin' that this feels like what heroin is."

Drake'son pointed up. "Do you see that bright, fiery center?" Bobby nodded. "That's why. That's also what we are here to retrieve. That's Salem Brodie."

"...this is really cool, Drake'son."

"I know."

_**-Christmas Eve, Santa Monica - Two Years Ago-**_

The bottle of Scotch had been worn down to a drop. Annie was unsure of how she was holding her head up or when she had ever drank this much before. Sean seemed as steady as a battleship.

"Yer a terrible drunk, Peckenpaugh."

Annie made a face. "Don't call me that, ugh."

"Did ye ever get yerself a fancy code name."

"Never did get to that part." Annie frowned and covered her head with a towel.

"What would ye have chosen?"

"Doesn't some sort of committee figure on your name?"

Sean shrugged. "I came in with me own. So did Logan."

"And everyone would confuse li'l ole me for either of you." Annie sighed and looked down. "'Applejack'. I would have chosen 'Applejack'."

Sean blinked. "That is the shittiest liquor I have ever drank."

"Not the liquor! It's a reference. Do you like Kurt Russell films, Sean?"

"I'm a man, aren't I?"

"When he was a child star at Disney?"

"I'm a man."

"Anyway. There was a movie called "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" - Kurt Russell played the lead character who was in college and had a perfect memory due to some shenanigans with Cesar Romero."

"Of course."

"Anyway, the college kids try to scheme a prize on a quiz bowl show and the word "Applejack" just makes Kurt Russell spill the guts about a gambling ring -"

"Run by Cesar Romero?"

"Of course!" Annie smiled. "So, I always thought "Applejack" would be a cool code name. Female Kurt Russell."

Sean smiled. "What aren't you telling me."

Annie sucked her bottom lip before exhaling. "Also, it's the name of my favorite "My Little Pony". She had green eyes and freckles like me and was just a pony. Not a unicorn. Not a pegasus. Just a pony." Annie smiled and held her hands out in a flourish. "Like me."

"Annie..."

"I was being fitted for the Doug Ramsey award. I'm over the whole idea of being an X-Men or useful or...anything." Annie suddenly felt very guilty. "Sean, I-"

"Annie?"

"Yes, Sean?"

"Would ye kiss me?"

Annie made her way slowly to Sean and he helped her on to his lap. She swallowed and pushed her guilt down. Annie was about to open up about Hank to Sean and hopefully get his advice, but she never thought she'd hear an Irish accent say those words. Not with eyes that looked so lost and helpless.

"Of course, Sean."


	3. Chapter 3

**Applejack**

**By Mice**

**Chapter 2: On the Moon**

_-Dundee, Indiana - Past-_

"Tell us again, Hank!"

"Yeah, tell us!"

Hank put his arm around the Morgan sisters, Penny age 16 and Vanessa age 17. "Well, ladies, as I am still drunk off of the perfume of victory -

"Cut the fancy talk!

"Just tell us!"

Hank looked at the giggle girl under each arm and let it go. "I won the game! Dundee High School Football rules!"

The room cheered.

That's all they wanted to hear. And as long as the Morgan sisters kept pawing at his muscles (that were bulging under his gray t-shirt), that was fine enough. He had two beers already and the better part of a bottle of vodka that had been going around. Hank had barely felt anything until Fred Creek had gone to his parents' bedroom and found a bottle of exceptionally good tequila that Hank found a home for down in his throat.

He had not yet been able to do his trademark "fireball", but the night was still young.

And this night wasn't even the championship, but Hank had booze, women, and the complete admiration of his peers.

All the hallmarks of a successful man, all his at the age of eighteen.

_-Hyperion Hotel, New York - Present-_

"I can't believe you came!"

"I can't, either."

"How have you been?"

"Could complain, but I don't want to bore you." Monet St. Croix fended off the hug that Paige Guthrie wanted so badly to give to her former teammate. "How are you, Paige, you seem to be simply bursting?"

"I'm great, things couldn't be better. You know, I realize now that my desire to turn my relationship with Warren into a TV Movie of the Week was just a desperate cry for attention, but it did give me a taste of what being a producer was." Paige nodded slowly, savoring the memory. "I really liked that."

"Have you caught up with Worthington?"

Paige shook her head, nose high in the air. "Monet, I am not Jubilee. I don't remain stuck on past infatuations."

"You talking about her and Iceman?"

"She once borrowed my phone for a full hour and blew up my data plan and still has never paid me back for it." Paige rolled her eyes. "Can you believe she still hasn't paid me back?"

Monet remained silent.

"I mean, I don't have St. Croix money, Monet."

"While I do find some of Jubilation's antics theatrical, histrionic, and sometimes cringeworthy, they are being done in the name of a friend. If she feels the friendship is worth it to use every method at her disposal, then I say, good for her. Use your phone. Borrow a car from me." Monet tossed her hair over a shoulder. "She's been through this rejection for years. How long did it take you to sell out your relationship with Warren?"

Paige shut her mouth and glared at Monet. "We never actually got past casting or a complete script so I wish people would stop making such a big deal out of it..."

_-The Moon, the Astral Plane in the mind of Annie Peckenpaugh-_

Annie sat on a bench, head looking down at the moon. There wasn't much there and there didn't need to be. It was the place she went in her mind when she wanted to be alone. It was a place she couldn't find as easily anymore. With the psionic invasion of the Bobby's Drake, Hank and Bert, everything seemed more distracted and being alone had never been easier.

Until Hank came.

She felt him wandering around, alone and unsure of where to go. First, he tried following logic. When that failed him, he turned to instinct. That had gotten him to where she was.

"There's room enough for two, Hank."

Hank wasn't even thinking about sitting down. He had something else on his mind.

"You made me a centaur."

"And I made Bobby Pegasus and Drake'son a Unicorn. If anyone should be complaining, it should be Bert -"

"Annie, I want you to look up and if either Robert or Bert come close, then I might calm down."

Annie looked up. "You mean I made you a centaur as in -"

"You made me a centaur." Hank was literally one part furless and a man with a horse's body. Of all incarnations he had suffered through, he was pretty sure this was his least liked.

"You shouldn't be too surprised. Your whole trip is "body of a beast with the mind of a man". It's perfect. Plus, in Greece, the finest tutors were considered to be the centaurs." Annie smiled. "Can I pet your back?"

"Maybe when I've come to terms with this more, but you may not. Also, before this even occurs to you - no pony rides." He stomped his hoof.

Annie giggled. "I'm really sorry, Hank."

"This has to stop, Annie."

"I'll see what I can do, but I'm not fully in control here-"

"No, not the form." Hank came closer to her. "After this is done, Annie, I don't think we should talk anymore."

Annie bit her lip. "Why?"

"You want something from me that I can't give you. I want you to stop asking for it."

"I'm only asking for what both of us want. Since you've given up, I thought it was my job to keep the conversation going." Annie could feel herself freeze up before remembering where she was - the safest place in the world. "Hank, you started the flirting. If you don't like the fact that it worked, you have only yourself to blame."

"It's been years. When you left in the middle of the night to go to Santa Monica, that should have been the end of it." Hank frowned. "You didn't say good-bye, you didn't leave me a note! I call and write you, nothing for a month. Meanwhile, Scott and Jean are driving Bobby to a rehab facility and I'm not allowed to come."

"I'm sorry, Hank, I -"

"Then you find Sean Cassidy and I think - great! He's a friend, I'll leave her alone! What could go wrong?" Hank smacked his hands together. "You lay that bombshell on me, with an added, 'Oh, why didn't you call when I told you I was getting married'?"

"I was scared, Hank."

"Not scared enough to leave him." Hank circled her. "Are the rumors true about you and Drake'son?"

Annie squinted her eyes. "I admit that we slept together, but there's nothing-"

"Annie, you're a tease."

"Excuse me?"

Hank shook his head. "I took you from that pitiful diner, I took you away from a relationship and family situation that clearly was not working, I gave you the chance to be my protege - mine! I work with you night and day and you barely..." Hank's hands shook. "You trained with Gambit. What else did you do?"

Annie stood up and moved to him. "Oh, so now you're getting jealous? Let me tell you about you stuffing my head full of knowledge like it's an Oreo cookie! I can only take so much of your methods!" Her arms flew over her head. "Remy was the first person who keyed in on the problem. Maybe because he wasn't focusing on the part where I was his "protege"!"

"Maybe he was focusing on how to get into your pants!"

"My pants are no longer your concern, Dr. McCoy!"

"Well, I haven't been concerned about the state of your pants for years, Miss Peckenpaugh! Take that to bed with you every night for the rest of your life and forget that I even existed!" Hank began to leave.

"The very fact that you have to yell this to me and be this dramatic means that you care for me!"

Hank turned to see her standing on the bench, her eyes cold and green. He growled. "The very fact that you even need this is ridiculous. It was obvious I had massive amounts of affection toward you at one time, Annie but that has been over for some time." He shook his head again as he approached her. "Everything is different. This can't be what it once was."

"Good." Annie kissed him.

_-Laramie, Wyoming - Past-_

The Pallas Women's Varsity Softball team had chosen the room of Jessica Blakefield as the party room. Jessica had some family in Laramie who knew some other students in the area. Pretty soon, the Laramie Holiday Inn was covered in teenagers.

Annie Peckenpaugh, captain of the softball team, was without her boyfriend and one such teenager. She was smart enough not to take a drink about of whatever was in the brown paper bag floating around. She was situated at the top of the motel, outside on the railing, looking down at everyone in an area she had all to herself.

Someone would have to explain everything in the morning. Including what happened to the pool (it was currently not turquoise but pink).

"Man, those Pallas gals can party."

Annie turned to see a tall, powerfully built boy about her age with a pair of thick framed glasses. She recognized him from a few football games. "You're number 8, Julius, right?"

"Yeah, last year. I'm Tony." He gave her his hand. "You part of the party from Pallas?"

Annie nodded. "I am their captain and I led them to victory tonight."

"Number 12, Peckenpaugh?"

Annie smiled. "How do you know that?"

"Well, how do you know my number?"

"Everybody follows football, nobody follows girls' softball." She looked away from him, feeling suddenly shy.

"My sister plays and I see your games." Tony smoothed Annie's hair behind her ear. "If Pallas' football team was like their softball league, they'd have a shot at the championship."

Annie blushed. Her boyfriend, Lindsey Porney, who participated in no sports, had never attended a single one of her games or seemed to care how important they were to her.

"I'm Annie," she found herself saying out loud.

Tony pushed his glasses up. "Hi, Annie." She caught him blushing briefly back at her. He slowly went for her hand. "I feel like the old guy at the party even though I only graduated last year."

"You go to UW?"

Tony nodded.

"And you came to a Holiday Inn? I'd imagine you'd have better things to do."

Tony laughed. "I only came up here because my sister's boyfriend came up to meet her. Gotta keep an eye on her."

Annie laughed. "That's great that you're so concerned about her."

"You know how it is with teenaged girls when they get with teenaged boys..." Tony blushed again.

"I know." She thought about her own relationship and how much she ignored of Lindsey cheating on her. Whenever thoughts about breaking up crept in her mind, she worried about the alternative - Lindsey wasn't so bad, what if she met someone who was?

"Do you want a Coke?" Tony smiled at her. "No booze, just a Coke. I got training in the morning."

Annie nodded. "A Coke would be nice." His attention returned to the pool below when she spied a familiar face. "Aw, come on!"

Tony returned. "What's wrong?"

Annie frowned. "That's...that's my boyfriend down there with that girl."

Tony grabbed the rail. "That's my sister." Tony began to ran down the stairs, Annie fast behind him.

"Kate! Get off of that boys face NOW!" Tony ran up to the couple on the lawn chair and peeled Lindsey off of his sister. "Get out of here."

Lindsey went towards Annie, arms open. "Oh, thank God you are here - I have been trying to find you."

She let him hug her. Annie looked for Tony again. He looked back at her as he took his sister out of the motel and shook his head.

"Can you believe that guy?" Lindsey asked, rubbing his arms where he had been picked up. "He could have hurt me!"

Annie would have loved that.

_-Hyperion Hotel, October 4th-_

"If I had known we were to have class reunions, I don't believe I would have ever signed up for Xavier's, Ms. Frost. With all due honesty."

"And with all due honesty, Paige, please leave the above-it-all attitude to Monet. You've worn overalls with no irony. It is not yours to have."

Paige shut her mouth as Jubilee and Monet shared a smirk.

"Can we stop arguin' and get down to business?" Sean pointed at a body resting on the couch. "Do you see that? We need to work on that."

"Disposal?" Monet asked. "If that's the case, I believe I saw John Storm drinking energy drinks earlier - one enthusiastic fist pump and our worries would be en flambe."

"We do not to dispose of the body, rather the soul," Emma explained.

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "So you recruited us, the three most obviously not empaths in the world, to help? Genius."

Emma pointed to Monet. "Monet's family history is pre-disposed to this sort of activity. I thought she might be of some use. And you, Jubilee, as the person with the most field experience on physical and psionic planes, are needed to go in there with me for protection."

Jubilee nodded, glad someone recognized that she had been a super-hero for for-fucking-ever.

"And me, Ms. Frost?" Paige asked, excited to be part.

Emma looked at Sean and nodded. "We need you to husk into a holding cell for a psionic spirit that we will be eventually dispose of."

Paige gulped and tried to cover it with poise. "I would definitely need to look up some information before that happens."

"Fair enough." Sean stood with his arms folded and the girls left to pursue their tasks. "'Husk inta holding cell for a psionic spirit' - ye pulled that plan out yer ass."

Emma smiled. "I knew I could get you to think about my ass." Victory.

_-Dundee, Indiana - Past-_

His classmates were scattered around Fred Creek's home, passed out. Except Hank. He barely felt buzzed. The only thing he needed were his car keys and then he could get home safely.

His keys were in his coat.

His coat was underneath Bo Shilling and the Morgan sisters. (Where he should have been.)

Not having any success, Hank decided to walk the ten miles to his parents house from Creek's farm. It was very early in the morning and beginning to rain. Hank delighted in walking in the mud in his bare feet.

It didn't last very long as an old beat up pick up truck was speeding down the road. After passing Hank, it stopped and the passenger door opened.

Hank ran up and looked in the door. "Thank you for stopping."

The driver, a woman in a sun hat and green linen dress, eyes wet with tears, yelled, "Just get in! The rain is going to get worse and I need to get out of here by morning!"

Hank hopped in and closed the door. The driver sped out. "I just need to go up past the cornfield by the Robertson farm - you don't need to go up the driveway or anything."

"Past the McCoy's?"

"No, at. That's my parent's house."

The driver looked at him. "Hank?"

Hank studied the driver's face with more interest. He couldn't place her right away, but the green eyes were very familiar.

She stopped the truck. "Hank, it's me - Beth." Beth smiled. "I lived with your family for a summer?" She looked at him, sure he would remember. "I was twelve, you must have been ten."

"Beth?" Hank felt like he had forgotten her on purpose as he didn't know how he could forget her.

"You've gotten mighty big, Hank.

"Beth...why are you back in town?" Hank didn't know the full story of why she had been with his family that summer, but remembered his mother stating that Beth could never come back.

_-The Moon, the Astral Plane in the mind of Annie Peckenpaugh-_

Hank pulled himself away from Annie. She had almost the same green eyes. "We can't do this."

Annie put his hands on his chest. "Because you're a centaur?"

"I hadn't remembered that, but that is an excellent reason." Hank cleared his throat. "I can't use you like this."

Annie frowned. "You don't want to use Beth with me."

"How do you know about her?"

Annie frowned. "The same way I knew that Bobby's aunt beat him when he was a kid. It's part of the 'gift'. Usually, I need prolonged body contact to absorb the memory."

"Sexual activity?"

"Yes, there are other ways, though."

"What are they?"

"I...haven't figured that out yet." Annie blushed.

"What is the memory you absorb?"

"I'm not quite sure...I know for Bobby, it was a moment of extreme trauma - one that he had repressed. I have one from Sean that I believe was shame. I just know that they come at a moment when there is prolonged skin to skin contact and a loss of mental control."

Hank had an "a ha" moment. "An orgasm is definitely the most efficient way for that scenario to happen...is it on their end or on your end?"

"Are you asking as a scientist?"

Hank nodded. "Mostly."

"I haven't quite made a study out of it, yet."

Hank began looking around the moon. It was an absolutely stunning place to be and he had no idea why he hadn't thought about looking at it more. "Annie, when you just kissed me and you saw that memory...has that ever happened before? That fast?"

"No...unless, did you-"

"NO."

"Ok. Then that's a no." Annie looked at where Hank was looking. "Do you think that the moon enhances that ability?"

"Better." Hank looked in her eyes with an open smile. "I saw your memory. I saw the Holiday Inn, I recognized your former fiance - and I noticed Tony." He noted the similarity between his high school self and the boy he saw in the memory.

Annie breathed hard. "It may not seem like much of a memory, but it's actually a happy one."

"Mine, too." Hank placed his hands on her hips. "Now figure out how to make me a not-centaur because we're going to do it."

"We are?"

"For science!"

"...we are?"

"And years of pent up sexual tension and frustration."

"That's better."


	4. Chapter 4

**Applejack**

By Mice

**Chapter 3: Summer Love Sensation**

**-The Sun-**

"I feel good. Can we try an experiment?"

"Now?" Drake'son motioned to their surroundings on the Sun.

Bobby pouted. "I know it's not the most convenient -"

"We're trying to retrieve Annie's mother from the center of the sun -"

"But I'm really curious!"

"You really want to dedicate a fraction of the time we are spending in Annie's mind on an experiment."

"...yeah, I'm feeling really good right now."

After a very long sigh, "Before we try your experiment?"

"Yes?"

"Can I try one?"

"Yes!"

"Is you experiment to see what song lyric I'm thinking about at this particular moment?"

Bobby was amazed. "You really are me!"

"No, I'm an empath, Robert. It's a popular question, for some reason."

"Oh." Bobby was disappointed.

"What lyric are you thinking about?"

"You mean you can't tell?"

"My empathic abilities are a bit taxed at the moment."

"Oh!" Bobby was relieved. "I'm thinking of that one line from "Horse with No Name" by America."

"'There were plants and birds and rocks and things'?"

"No, but I do think about that line a lot."

"'The heat was hot'?"

"Yes. Because it is." Bobby could lie to himself and say that this adventure was not unnerving. It was bad enough to be in the head of his ex-girlfriend, but to be in the company of an alternate version of himself made him extra uncomfortable. Especially since, "You are very easy to be around, Drake'son."

"Really? I felt that you were at ill-ease."

"Yeah...that's part of it. Everybody seems to love you and everyone seems to really hate me at the moment. I really wanted to hate you...but you're a really nice guy."

"I have heard those sentiments expressed about you in the past from others."

Bobby nodded. "I've become-"

"A dick, Bobby. You've become a dick that nobody wants to be in the same room with." Drake'son looked at him with his good eye and Bobby felt stared down. "I tell you this because your friends stare at me and I can feel what they are thinking. When Jean was still alive, she'd stare at me with this sad nostalgia and I could do nothing for her but eat ice cream sandwiches and make her feel that her friend was all right."

"I can only imagine what it was like with Jubilee."

Drake'son put his hand on Bobby's shoulder. "She has never expected me to be you. She's the only one who recognizes me as a seperate entity."

Bobby grinned cockily. "Prove it."

"How?"

"What movie did you watch on New Year's?"

"Eve?"

"No. New Year's. We had a tradition. Every year, even apart. Name it."

"Well...the first year we watched "Xanadu"-"

"Called it. She-"

Drake'son interrupted. "But the next, we began a new tradition."

**-New Year's, Two Years Ago-**

_Warriors...come out and pla-ye-yay!_

**-The Moon-**

"Am I still half man, half beast?"

"Afraid so."

Hank and Annie laid on the cool surface of the moon in frustration. "Why is everything so hard?"

Annie began to laugh.

"Explain yourself."

"Just can't get the image of you in your hometown out of my mind. Because to me, you are Dr. Henry McCoy - genius, scientist who sprang from Walden's Pond by some sort of immaculate and furry conception." Annie shook her head to shake the image away. "You were such a boy."

Hank frowned. "I was a large young man. Lots of muscles."

"No, you were a boy. I could tell it in your eyes...nothing significant had happened to you." Annie turned to look at him. "I wonder if that's how I must have looked to you when we met."

"You were much older."

"Nothing of much significance had happened to me at that time."

Hank tried to remember what she had looked like and was surprised to remember. "You reminded me of a cat in a pound. Unhappy to be there, but too dignified to meow."

"I probably mewed a bit."

"You didn't belong there."

"How could you tell?"

Hank closed his eyes. "Your eyes, large and green. When you're unhappy, they search."

"Everybody does that."

"All girls do that when they are unhappy," he remembered.

**-Back Dirt Road in Dundee, Illinois, Past- **

"Beth, why are you back in town?"

She began to shudder and cry again. Hank went to grab her hand that began to hit the steering wheel repeatedly. "Brad Zuk."

Hank remembered Brad Zuk. Older than him by a few years and the youngest arsonist in Dundee - a record all the young people of Dundee were encouraged not to beat. All memories Hank had of Brad did not match what Beth had in mind.

"He wrote me, Hank - and I was so flattered that he would remember me after all these years!"

"Where have you been, Beth?" Hank opened the dashboard and found a napkin for her to wipe her eyes and nose with.

"Foster care." She blew her nose before looking at him with her red rimmed green eyes. "I bet your folks never did that again after me."

"I wasn't aware that you knew Brad," Hank offered, trying to remember.

"Do you remember when we'd go to the neighbor's barn and swing off the rope until Edna would come over to get us for dinner?" Beth stopped crying briefly to smile.

"Mr. Agess's barn." Hank hadn't thought about that barn for a long time, but the memories of the two of them swinging off the rope began to come back.

"How's Norton?"

"Good." Actually, Hank was too busy being a senior in high school and focusing on how to get out of Dundee to really think about his parents.

"I miss your parents, Hank."

"They haven't."

"What?"

Hank shook his head. "They never took on more foster kids. I began to really grow after you left." He held up his hands.

"Oh, you always were bigger than everyone else!" Beth smiled. "You grew up nice, Hank. Real nice."

"You came back for Brad Zuk?"

"He was my first love, Hank."

"At age twelve?"

Beth shrugged. "I'm a romantic!"

Hank grew silent. "When did all this happen?"

"Brad's family were neighbor's of the next house I stayed at. I was literally the girl next door...stayed their until Christmas and then got moved to a girls' home in Chicago."

"Where are you now?"

"Still Chicago. I was going to college, got kicked out. Then I got that letter from Brad and I thought...well, stupid things that only girls think."

"Beth, did he do anything to you?"

Beth began to laugh loud enough to make the truck shake. "Hank, he's in prison. I went to the address on the letter and his folks told me that he's now in Cook County Jail."

"And you're crying."

"Yeah, well, my life is just a fantastic clusterfuck." Her hands danced around her head like dead fairies. "I have no idea what I'm doing anymore."

Hank remained silent, not quite understanding what he needed to do for her. "I have a wonderfully stupid idea, Beth."

**-Hyperion Hotel, October 4th-**

"I'm grateful to ye, Emma."

"It's nothing, Sean - it is a fairly routine process." Emma did not smile. "I am rather confused as to why I was not asked to participate in the other operation."

"There was no asking with that woman!" Sean stared out the window. "She just barged into my room, told me what was up and what I needed to do."

"Robert's grandmother?"

"Aye."

"She drank your booze, didn't she?"

"And took some of it with her."

"I don't think anybody is sad to hear that, Sean." Emma went to the unconscious female on the bed. "So, who is this, exactly?"

"Anagiovanna St. Prix is what the woman who took my booze called her."

"That's mentally. Remember, Sean, we're extracting a psionic signature." Emma straightened out the long piece of chocolate brown hair elegantly mixed with distinguished white trails of age. "Who does the body belong to - Annie's mother?"

Sean shook his head. "No. Nobody seems to know where that is, considering that whatever is buried back in Wyoming is no longer there."

"If you ask me," Jubilee interrupted, entering the room. "And nobody ever does, this could be Jacqueline Lubbock."

Emma and Sean looked at their former pupil who had a knowledge sandwich and they were both very hungry.

"Yeah, remember Harper Lubbock? Went to the Massachusetts Academy, too? Empath, upstairs with Annie? My ex-boyfriend and Bobby's cousin? Yeah, well, anywhoodaddle, his mom used to be an assassin for Anagiovanna with her twin sister, Jacqueline. Since Harpo's mom is doing fine and is my friend on Pinterest, I'm guessing that this is her sister."

"What happened to Jacqueline Lubbock?"

Jubilee shrugged. "All I know is that she died - the Basses don't go into it, neither does Julia." A smile crept on her face. "If this is Jacqueline, Jacob is gonna puke hearts."

Emma frowned. "Jubilee, this isn't about retrieving anyone but Anagiovanna. Once the empaths upstairs extract Salem, this body is going to serve as her new home."

"But what about Jacqueline Lubbock? Like, you don't get how moony Jacob still is over her. Trust me, I lived with this family." Jubilee stomped her foot. "If she's in there, we owe it to Jacob to do the right thing."

"Who's Jacob?" Sean asked.

"Bobby's uncle."

Emma clarified. "The mad booze woman's son."

Sean stepped up to Jubilee. "Well, that mad booze woman made it clear what we needed to do and she said nothing about spelunking for ghosts."

"That mad booze woman? Is my biffle. And if there was a chance to make her son happy, she'd make it happen."

"If she is your...biffle," God, Emma hated slang. "And she knew that this woman was still alive all this time and kept it from her son, don't you find that absolutely disturbing?"

"My biffle would have reasons, Queenie. And I trust her far more than I trust you."

"And why is that?"

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "I'm the one who found Bobby after you took over his body."

Emma smiled. "Clearly a case of jealousy."

**-The Sun-**

"Draw your sword."

"I know for a fact neither of us know how to use a sword."

"Good," Bobby said, stone faced and sword drawn. "We'll be evenly matched."

"May I remind you that we are not here to deal with petty jealousies?" Drake'son pointed at Salem Brodie, flaming in the sky. "In fact, if you wanted to really do something, ice her down."

"'Ice her down'?"

"Do you even remember that you are the Iceman?" Drake'son stepped closer to him, moving Bobby's sword to the side.

Bobby frowned. "I haven't been able to do that for a while. And it's not because I'm de-powered or anything. I just can't."

"Can you do anything?"

"I have a sword. And I'm in the mind of my ex-girlfriend with a cool version of myself." Bobby threw his sword down. "I'm of no use here."

The sword disappeared. "You didn't want a grand adventure?"

"My version of a grand adventure would not include horses or wearing metal into the blazing sun!" Bobby closed his eyes. "We both know what my version of this would be."

**-The Sun II: A Bobby Drake Production-**

Lights.

Camera.

"I really missed my mullet."

"I really missed mine, too."

Hi5ives.

"Our horses are gone."

Bobby raised his hand, sun glistening in his permed mullet, pink t-shirt tight on his chest from sweat.

Drake'son looked to Bobby and then out into the distance where he saw a lit with goldfire, soundtracked with synthesizer, 1987 Ford Escort.

_There's something inside you_

_It's hard to explain_

_They're talking about you, boy_

_But you're still the same_

"Who drives?"

"Only I get to drive Lady Jaye." Bobby grinned.

Drake'son stared. "Who?"

The car stopped in front of them, a wave of sand blowing like a cape behind her. The doors opened automatically to let them in and introduced herself.

"Lady Jaye, reporting for duty, Sirs Drake." The doors closed. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm driving."

Lyrics from "Nightcall" By Kavinsky.

Am picturing who voices Bobby's beloved car, Lady Jaye. Lori Petty?


	5. Chapter 5

**Applejack**

By Mice

_Part Four_: _Intergalatic Space Hussies_

**-Astral Plane-**

"This won't hurt," was the last lie Jubilee heard before finding herself on a space like terrain. Emma Frost had said that Jubilee was the most experienced than Paige Guthrie and Monet St. Croix, but only in the way that she had been around people who had done it and had asked, repeatedly, what it was like. This happened so often that Betsy Braddock once said it was like submerging your whole head in a sink of ice water and sure enough, Jubilee had done that to the laughter of everyone.

Turned out, Betsy was being honest, but humble about how cold it felt.

Jubilee walked on the terrain, dressed in metallic leggings and purple ankle boots. Her rack was covered in silver stars.

With fringe.

Jubilee climbed on top of a rock and surveyed the vast emptiness and saw a blind angel fly above her. "Mary, Tyler and Moore, I'm Barbarella!"

**-The Moon, the Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh's Mind-**

"What happened next?"

Hank shook his head. "I don't remember."

Annie stroked his back gently. "I'm sorry."

"Stop it." Hank brushed her arm away. "I'm not comfortable with this."

Annie took a deep breath. "You know what your problem is, Hank? You want everybody to treat you like a man. If you can just talk fast enough, be smart enough, no one will stop and see that you're an animal."

"But I am an animal, Annie." Hank motioned to himself. "I'm the Beast out there and in your mind, I'm a centaur! And if you could change me, we could go back to the idea of doing things in the name of science."

"If I could change you?" Annie shook her head. "You think your problem is so unique to you. No other man has ever felt the struggle of the beast within. Maybe if you would stop jabbering about useless fodder and let others open up, you could really see that you're not alone."

Hank remained silent.

"You want me to change you?" Annie stared at him. "I could. I could make you all man and give you what you want."

"What I want isn't to be just a man -"

"What you want is to not feel responsible for your actions. You're not a beast, Hank. You're just a man. Just another scared man." Annie turned and began to walk away. "What I wanted was a wolf."

**-Dundee, IL, Past-**

"I'm pretty sure that if I were to swing that rope, I'd bring the barn crashing down around me."

"Beth..."

Beth waved him off and further investigated Mr. Agess's barn. "I'm not twelve and flat chested anymore, Hank."

Hank smiled shyly. "You were never flat chested."

"We could still lay here." Beth fell back into a pile of hay. "Just because neither of us are young anymore and you for sure could bring this barn down."

Hank joined her, the hay musty from the rain.

"Can we just lay here for a while, Hank?" Beth made her way under his arm.

"I thought you had to get out of town before morning?"

"I do...but for now..." Hank felt her body come closer to his. "I have you..and these ginormous muscles..to protect me."

Hank thought proudly, "I could do this forever."

**-The Sun, The Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh's Mind-**

"Lady Jaye, locate Salem Brodie," Bobby cooly commanded.

"You got it, boss man!" Lady Jaye's control panel near the tape deck in the 1987 Ford Escort began to buzz with electronic thinking. "Can I put on some locatin' music?"

Drake'son frowned. "Robert, I should tell you that I hate Duran Duran."

Bobby was not phased. "No you don't."

"Yes I do."

Bobby took his sun glasses off. "Drake'son...if there is anything I know about me - and I know me better than anyone - it's that all me's love Duran Duran."

Drake'son took off the eyeglass covering his good eye. "Yes, all the you's love Duran Duran - when they are young and immature. Some of the you's have grown up and have developed tastes beyond Duran Duran."

Lady Jaye stopped the car and opened the door.

"Drake'son...this is your last stop."

"Robert, you need me."

"And stop calling me "Robert", I'm Bobby. I'm an immature doofus with a heart of gold. And if I want to listen to Duran Duran in my dream car in my ex-girlfriend's head, I will. I don't need to hang out with my alternated dimension doppelganger as well."

"Robert -"

"Good day, sir."

"Bobby?"

Bobby kicked Drake'son out of the car and closed the door. "I said "good day"!"

**-Astral Plane-**

Jubilee had gone through twelve costume changes and some very erotically charged situations that, unlike Barbarella, she did not engage in. Experience had made her tougher and smarter about what adventures to pursue.

This adventure was about the violet light that glowed in the center of the crescent canyon.

Adjusting her gold corset and making sure her crushed obsidian wrist guards were as awesome as she thought they were, Jubilee continued on.

**-The Sun, The Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh's Mind-**

Hank had not chased after her but begun to head out in another direction. He remained alone, convincing himself it was for the best, letting a bed crumb trail of angry phrases behind him.

He thought he was dreaming when he heard the music of Duran Duran, and thought he was hallucinating when he felt the heat of the sun come closer.

Then the gold Ford Escort.

And though Hank had never asked and though he had never said, Hank knew who was in this car (and knew what her name was). The smile started in his throat and he allowed it to come up to his face.

The car stopped sharply in front of him and a door opened.

"Hank! Get in! We need to find Annie's mom and then run donuts around Drake'son in the desert in Lady Jaye!"

Hank looked at the control panel in the car. It had a tape deck. Hank looked at Bobby.

"You have a mullet."

"You're a centaur."

"Did you want a mullet?"

"Obviously. Did you want to be a centaur?"

"Obviously not."

Bobby reached out a hand. "You don't have to be a centaur, Hank. I mean, Drake'son made us knights and I was all, uh uh. That is not how Bobby Drake rolls in the astral plane of his ex-girlfriend's mind!"

Hank took in this optimism - this long forgotten cherished optimism that filled his best friend that he had not seen in years. He hadn't even seen his best friend in years. Hank had begun to think that they would never see each other again.

But then here he was. Bobby Drake in a mullet, driving a gold Fold Escort with an artificial intelligence in the dashboard, offering him adventures.

It made him feel like a man. Annie be damned.

"Lookin' good there, Doc!" Lady Jaye chimed, approving of Hank's change from a centaur to a blue haired, well muscled defender of justice.

A man.

Hank entered the car, Bobby gave him his hand. "We ride."

**-The Moon-**

"Annie? Wait."

Annie turned around from her intense stomp walk across the moon. "What do you want, Drake'son? I feel like I've been here forever and it's just men -"

"You mean Hank."

"Tossing me around - they want me, but they don't want me like this it has to be like that and there is a refusal to even consider a work around?" Annie beat her fists against the sky. "Men are stupid and I never want to meet another one as long as I live."

"What happened with Hank?"

"We were going to do it! Like, finally!"

Drake'son groaned. "Annie, does it really matter whether or not you and Hank -"

"Yes, it does!" Annie put Drake'son's hand on her head. "It's all I can think about. I can't make it stop."

"Would you want it to, if I could?"

Annie remained silent, thinking of the prospect. "When I met Hank, I felt my life change. I've never felt anything like it since."

"Nostalgia."

"Says the man with the mullet...wait, how did you get to change your form?"

"Bobby did it, actually. He ditched me in the desert for not liking Duran Duran."

"He'll do that."

"He's immature."

"Is he at least trying to find my mother?"

Drake'son shrugged. "I don't know, this mission has gone very strange. Perhaps you and I should try to locate her ourselves."

Annie nodded. "I just want to get this over with and get away from all of this."

"Back to your wedding?"

Annie shrugged.

Drake'son grabbed Annie. "If you don't want to marry him, say the word and I'll leave with you."

"Why couldn't anyone else say that?" Annie kissed Drake'son's cheek.

**-The Astral Plane-**

"Hello, Pretty Pretty."

Jubilee, in a sky blue feathered bodice and silver ankle boots, pointed at The Great Tyrant. "Seriously? Okay...let's...combat. Time's a-tickin'."

"Not so fast!" The Great Tyrant threw Jubilee a double ended staff - one side a scythe, the other side a dagger. "We use these. Let the great-!" The Great Tyrant was cut off by Jubilee plunging the dagger into her chest.

"I said, "Time's a-tickin'! Now...is there any other shit you're going to throw my way, brain of some Lubbock woman?"

"You have excellent work ethic. Tell me, where are you from?"

Jubilee removed the blade from The Great Tyrant and turned around to see a blonde haired woman in a light blue cloak. "Los Angeles."

"I love Western girls and their confidence."

Jubilee studied her, knowing for sure that she was not part of the Barbarella galaxy. "I'm Jubilee."

"I assume you know who I am."

"Annagiovanna St. Prix?"

She smiled. "I should not be shocked, I've had an excellent run."

"What's it like to be in someone else's body?" Jubilee's eyes remained focused.

Annagiovanna shook her head. "Same shit, different body."

"And who does the body belong to? Jacqueline Lubbock?"

Annagiovanna shook her head again. "Hartley Lubbock."

"Another sister?"

"This is a very boring way to provide exposition. Would you like a drink?" A table appeared with an amber liquid and two fine glasses and wooden chairs. "I tell you what, Jubilee. How about I ask you a question, you ask me a question. We both take a drink."

Jubilee sat. "Okay, question one -"

"No, no," Annagiovanna dismissed her as she sat and poured out the two drinks. "You've already asked a few questions, it is my turn. And my first question to you Jubilee is how would you like a job working for me?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Applejack**

By Mice

**Part 6: The Battleground of Little Girls and Boys**

_-The Desert between the Sun and the Moon-_

"So, you said Hank and I were engaged in your world, right?"

Drake'son nodded quietly. He was walking a large Palomino horse that Annie was riding from the Moon to the Sun.

"What made me leave him?"

Drake'son smiled small and was rewarded with a tart kick in the shoulder. "Hey!"

"You forget," Annie explained, eyes sharp on him, "I've had the Drake'son experience. And it was just 'all right'."

"_All right_?"

"Yeah, it was okay."

"'Okay'?! You wound me, Annie."

"I'm just...I'm not really a sex person."

Drake'son stopped the palomino. "I call bullshit."

"Just because I've experimented doesn't mean I'm some sort of lust driven bunny."

"You've just never had the right man. Tell me, Annie, do you really think Hank's that man?"

Annie shrugged. "I don't know. If I left him in an alternate universe, why would it work out in this one?" Annie clicked her heels and they started moving once more.

"So...Sean doesn't ring your bell?"

"You did not just say that."

"It bears asking."

"I'm not confiding in my widowed husband from an alternate dimension whether or not Sean..._rings my bell_."

"Then why so many men?"

"My number is less than ten, that's not a lot."

"He doesn't, does he?"

"You're on thin ice, Drake'son."

He knew Annie's tone was jocular, but Drake'son didn't reply right away. She was so different from the woman he knew. "I get it. You're just a little girl."

He was prepared for a bite or a barb, what he got was, "You're right."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. I've met my alternate doppelganger. He named the talking car Lady Jaye."

Annie decided not to ask too many questions about Bobby (she could fill in the rest) and what he was currently doing (mostly out of fear) and stopped her horse. "I'm a little girl who can't face her mother."

"That's not set in stone, you know."

"You're right. Get up here."

Drake'son hoisted himself behind her on the horse. "What's the horse's name?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Annie answered turning the horse around to go towards the sun. "I'm a little girl and I named the pony Applejack."

_-Hyperion Hotel, Present-_

"This is like that one movie."

"What movie?"

"That caper movie where a group of people were sleeping."

"_Inception_?"

"No. They were trying to implant an idea into someone's mind using dreams."

"That's _Inception_."

"No! Michael Caine and one of the other true 10's was in it."

"Leonardo DiCaprio?"

"In what world does Leonardo DiCaprio get to be a 10? Marion Cotillard!"

"That's _Inception_."

"It has the girl that looks like Kitty in it-"

"_Inception_."

"And this really manly guy - "

"Tom Hardy. This movie is called _Inception_, Warren."

Warren shook his head, dismissing Scott. "I don't think so, that was the disaster movie with John Cusack."

"...that was _2012_!"

"When was that released?"

"2009, I think."

Warren paused for a long time. "Well, that's idiotic."

"How do you confuse _2012_ for _Inception_?"

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Hold that thought, Scott."

"Warren, the way your mind works will haunt me forever."

Warren opened the door. "Johnny?"

"Jonathan. You can call me Jonathan Storm. Esquire. Didn't you get my fax?" Jonathan Storm, formerly Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, did a judo chop in the air. "Where's Robert?"

"Are you guys going to kung fu fight?"

"No." Another chop. "Why do you ask?"

Scott entered the foyer and remembered the last time he was at the Hyperion Hotel with Johnny, Warren and Bobby and thought it best to ask, "Are you on drugs?"

"I'm high on LIFE, Summers!" A kick in the air. "And maybe four energy drinks - but Bobby-I mean, **Robert** made me. Where is he? I have a great idea!"

Warren and Scott looked at each other. "Uhm…Robert can't come out an play, Jonathan."

"Not buying it!" He was already at the mini-bar, grabbing another energy drink. "If I'm awake, he's awake."

Scott pointed at the other room in the suite. "Well, right now he's…how to put this…"

"Bobby's in the astral plane of his ex-girlfriend. Drake'son's in there, too."

Jonathan's jaw dropped. "You mean…he's real? The alternate Robert Drake is real and is in there?"

"Well, sort of - they are on an astral plane right now."

Jonathan's hand went up to high-five Scott. When he didn't move fast enough, Jonathan slapped his hand for him. "All right! I'm going to need another one of these -" Jonathan held up his energy drink. "And a guitar!"

_-Pallas, WY - Past-_

The party consisted of a couch hoisted from the living room by the stronger young bucks of Pallas High and only because they were promised beer.

Annie Peckenpaugh barely made it out of high school and was pretty sure if her cousin Mick hadn't graduated with her, no one would show up for her. Likely, her current boyfriend Lindsey wouldn't either. She watched him hitting on a girl who was currently a junior. If he kept this up, he'd be a dirty old man.

Annie felt the potential of the world no where near her fingertips and wondered why she even bothered to come to anybody's graduation party.

"Number 12?"

Annie turned to see Tony Julius. "Number 8! What brings you to the sticks?"

"My roommate is seeing a girl down here." Tony shook his head. "And he doesn't have a car so I got enlisted."

Annie smiled. "How's college life? Do you play ball, still?"

"College is fine. Won't get the chance to play ball for another year, but I'm thinking about not playing anymore."

"You're kidding. You were great!"

"Have you ever seen the guys they got from Utah, Annie? Hulking blond men who have no desire for caffeine. It's terrifying!" Tony shook his head again and pushed up his glasses. Annie noticed that he was growing out his hair and reminded herself not to touch it. "I'm actually getting into medicine. Veterinary. I grew up around horses, so…"

"Hey, somebody has to be a hot veterinarian. Might as well be you."

"_Hot_?" He almost seems confused, she thought.

Annie blushed. "Well, you got…" She forgot her reminder and touched his hair. "Floppy hair…athletic build…glasses…so, yeah, hot."

Tony moved her hand away. "You still dating whatshisface?"

Annie glanced to where Lindsey was. "He said that while he's away at college, I can't expect us to be exclusive."

"You're still with him, then."

"For now." Annie suddenly felt embarrassed. "I don't have a great home life."

"Is everything okay? I never saw you at anymore games."

"My knee. I got ran into at home plate." Annie looked at the party. "I lost my scholarship to Western State because of it."

Tony crouched down and began to examine her knee. "Which one?"

"The right."

His hands ran over the top of her knee and behind it. "It may just be torn cartilage…easily fixable. Happens in horses a lot. Have you had a consult?"

Annie stared at him.

"You've been to a doctor?"

"Went to the emergency room…they did x-rays and told me I was off the team for the rest of the year. Never really followed up."

"Annie, you can't ignore that. You can still get it fixed."

She shrugged.

"Trust me, I'm studying to be a hot horse doctor."

"No fair mocking me!" Annie punched him lightly in the shoulder and allowed herself to smile.

"It's fun though." Tony took her hand. "Would you go for a walk with me? I just saw a guy with lighter fluid and a hula hoop. You're cool, but I'm really afraid of some of these kids from Pallas."

"You should be. We're all wild." Annie closed her hand over his. "I'll take you on a tour."

_-The Astral Plane of Hartley Lubbock-_

"So, I would get to kill people _**AND**_ get paid?"

"Handsomely."

"Handsomely? Dude," Jubilee answered. "Dream job. Where does it become a nightmare?"

Anagiovanna St. Prix smiled and smoked a cigarette from a long, silver holder. "It depends on how attached you are to people, Jubilee."

"I'm an orphan, what do you think?"

"I think you have abandonment issues…key to being an assassin. All my girls have them, I have them. The difference is in how you handle them." Anagiovanna pointed to her silver cigarette case. "Would you care for one?"

"Not my thing."

"Non-smoker…that's becoming more and more popular these days. Do you drink?"

"Sometimes."

"_Sometimes_ means you drink to forget. That could be a problem. Any other drugs?"

"Lady, I'm a mutant who shoots fireworks out of her hands. I was taught by the best to not lose that control or get into situations where it could."

"Excellence. So, what about boys?"

"So what about girls?" Jubilee grinned as if she invented grinning.

"Are you trying to shock me, little girl?" Anagiovanna shook her head. "You're promiscuous. That could also be a problem."

"Look, I've had sex. I'm in my early twenties, it was inevitable."

"Do you have sex for pleasure or for love, Jubilee?"

"That's a personal question."

"Like booze, you have sex to forget."

"How do you figure?"

"For those who do it for pleasure, there's a playfulness in the lips that anticipate the world like a child at a carnival. That marks them. Sex isn't wicked, it's innocent for those who have sex for pleasure.

"Now, sex for love? I make it a rule to never hire them. How can someone kill believing in love? I am in the business of killing the body, not the soul."

Jubilee smiled and patted the table. "What about Hartley, here? Didn't she have a soul?"

"Arguably." Anagiovanna took a long drag and let the smoke dance in the air. "What are you trying to forget, Jubilee?"

Jubilee stared into the old woman's eyes calmly. "I'm not trying to forget."

"You have the look of a young woman but the confidence of a little girl." Anagiovanna put out her cigarette and got a new one out. "It's much better than I thought - you're revenge fucking. Who was he - her? Who made you want to prove yourself so badly to everyone?"

"No one."

"Someone took away your illusion of safety. Someone made you feel as if you could open up and trust. And then that someone rejected you. And when that happened, you began your spree. Hoping they would notice and save you."

"Yeah, well, he wouldn't even be able to notice. He's dead."

"Did you do it?"

"NO!"

Anagiovanna shrugged and drew another drag. "Pity. Continue."

"We were like a mini-family. I'd been with another family, but I was always the young brat there. In this new family…I was an equal - I mean, I thought I was. I was only three years younger than him. That's not much! And we were best friends…but Everett didn't want me, he wanted everybody else. I was too young, too much like a sister, too much like everything he didn't want."

"You must have tried very hard to be what he did want."

"Dyed my hair blonde. Not recommended for Asian hair."

"Who was the first?"

"First what?"

"Victim. Who did you sleep with first to teach this Everett a lesson?"

Jubilee felt her energy tense up. "My best friend. Bobby. Older. Part of the other family."

"I thought you said Everett was your best friend?"

"I have a lot of best friends."

"All of them male?"

Jubilee remained silent, tellingly.

"Shall I posit? He was older, part of this other family…you went for status. Let him know that you weren't a child. That means the next one would have been someone closer to your age and with this other family."

Jubilee sat, stunned and helpless. "Yeah. Harpo."

"You strung him along for the affection. He paid you attention within Everett's eyesight. That is how he was valuable. Most likely stopped stringing him along when Everett couldn't see it."

Jubilee had never thought about it, but she left Harpo right after the last time she saw Everett. "Then came a whole lot of other people."

"When did Everett die?"

"Years ago."

"You never got over it, did you?"

Jubilee didn't answer verbally.

"So who have you been trying to torture all these years in his place?"

"I'm not torturing him!"

"Not a her?" Anagiovanna smiled, unafraid.

Jubilee grabbed the unlit cigarette in the holder and broke it in half.

"Child, do yourself a favor and listen to me." Anagiovanna took another cigarette out of the case and placed it in the holder. "Don't you want to get over a ghost?" Jubilee remained silent as Anagiovanna placed the end of the cigarette near her fingers. "Come on now, I could invent a lighter, but I like to be treated like a lady.

Sparks shot small out of Jubilee's fingertip. "I'm not torturing Bobby."

"Of course. The first. Probably lost your virginity to him as well."

"Look, do you want me to tell you or not?!"

"My apologies. Continue."

Jubilee had no words to follow her prompt.

"May I continue, then? I take your silence as permission." Another long drag. "What is it that you want from this Bobby - do we have to call him that? It's terribly common in an American way."

"Call him Drake."

Anagiovanna nodded. "Do you want Drake to love you the way you Everett wanted to?"

"No…it was different with Ev. Like, everything was sweet and possible. You know, young and stupid.

"Drake was that feeling of…I thought it would be this thing that only he and I knew about. This secret that would bind us…we were both feeling low and this was something adult we did and, you know what? The actual act wasn't terrible. It was him not remembering." Jubilee glanced at Anagiovanna.

"You seemed shocked by that?"

"…I thought I was so grown up…I was just a kid, wasn't I?"

"You're still a kid."

"Yeah, well, you're an old woman."

"I'm an old woman who is still revenge fucking."

"You mean it doesn't stop? I thought you were going to help me get rid of a ghost."

Anagiovanna shrugged. "I'm chain smoking on an astral plane talking to you in a body that is not our own - the fact you are talking about past lovers and the fact that I want you to suggests that we love ghost stories. Shall I tell you a ghost story now?"

_-Pallas, WY - Past - _

Annie knew that she and Tony were talking, but was focused on how long it had been since they started. She felt each aching second pass, knowing that they were getting closer to the time when it had to end.

They stopped at the opening of a metal fence with sheep sleeping nearby. "You've told me about your aunt and your cousins, where are your folks?"

Annie felt that time was coming closer. "My mom is dead."

"I'm sorry, I hadn't heard-."

"You wouldn't have. It was a really long time ago. She wasn't well…I barely knew her."

"How did she die?"

Annie paused. "I…I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"She was in the state hospital in Evanston…you know…" Annie hoped he wouldn't make her say the word "asylum".

"I understand."

"She apparently went to New York, got addicted to drugs and got pregnant, then came back here where she never quite recovered."

Tony laid his jacket down on the grass and motioned for her to sit and joined her. "And you never met your father?"

"That's a mess, too. My aunt stuck me on a bus when I was seven and sent me to New York. Apparently, it wasn't a return ticket and either he didn't know he was supposed to pick me up or knew and just didn't."

"Do you know anything about him?"

"I know his name. It was on my birth certificate. That's where the Peckenpaugh comes from."

"I've been trying to figure out where that name came from! I tried calling you, but there are no Peckenpaugh's listed anywhere in this area of Wyoming -"

"You looked me up in phone book? Stalker."

"Am not." Tony blushed as he got out his wallet and handed her a baseball card that said _Frankie Peckenpaugh - Catcher, New York Yankees_. "I found this a few weeks before I saw you play for the first time. I just thought the name was cool. Then I saw that name on your jersey...and I sound like an idiot with a magic card."

"It is a magic card - in fact, I have this card." Annie got out her wallet and took out her identical card. "I found it in my uncle Roman's old stuff when I was a girl…I think this made me want to play baseball. I used to imagine this guy was my dad. In fact, when I got to New York, I went to the phone book and tried to look him up. I found two listings and called them…one was a very polite foreign guy who had a cat, the other was this guy who said that there was no way he could have a kid because he only had one ball."

"You were seven?"

"Yep."

"That's messed up. Wanna trade baseball cards?"

Though the act was childish, Annie no longer felt like a little girl hiding in a corner.

_-Hyperion Hotel, Present-_

Sean was afraid to go into the suite where his fiancee was. Not because it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, but because he had heard the following while coming up the hall.

"_So kiss me and smile for me,_

_Tell me that you'll wait for me,_

_Hold me like you'll never let me go._

'_Cause I'm hangin' in the astral plane - _

_Don't know when I'll be back again..._

_Doo doo doo..._pretty good, right?"

Nothing.

"I mean, I know I'm no Weird Al, but I think I have a real future doing song parody...you know, if being a BAD ASS super-hero didn't take up most of my time!"

Sean opened the door to find a wide and red-eyed Jonathan (he had gotten the fax) Storm with a guitar speaking **very** loudly to Scott and Warren.

"Is everything okay in here?"

"Yes, Sean."

"NO!"

"ROCK & ROLL IS ALIVE IN ALL OF US!"

Warren took away the guitar from Jonathan. "Jonathan thinks by changing two words, he has produced a parody song of marketable quality." Warren was precise in his language and his anger.

Jonathan Storm did another judo chop.

Sean made eye contact with Scott's glasses. Then went to the nearly vibrating Jonathan Storm. Then went to Warren's angry face and settled on the hand that held up a guitar.

Scott looked at the floor. "Damn it."

_-Ten minutes later...-_

"_It was all I could do to keep from cryin'_

_Sometimes it seems so useless to remain_

_You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'._

_You never even call me by my name."_

Warren announced that he was going to freshen up, leaving Sean with the guitar and Jonathan and Scott alone.

"Can I have my guitar back now?"

"Johnny-"

"Jonathan!"

Scott used the voice he saved only for firm negotiations, commanding under impossible odds, and ordering frozen yogurt. "Johnny, do you remember the last time we were at the Hyperion?" Scott crossed his arms. "I believe both the Professor and Reed made rules about you and Bobby possessing any musical instrument. I only wish we had foresight to include energy drinks in that rule."

"Yeah...but Bobby needed cheering up. This is rough on him."

"We all know this is an awkward situation."

Johnny shook his head. "You don't get it because you're not his best friend. Bobby and I are a lot alike. Everything that you guys see and wonder "wow, Bobby sure has changed!", I see a guy in a lot of pain. So, if he wants to find a guitar in the wee hours in the morning, drink a hundred dollars worth of energy drinks, and a few other stupid things I am NOT disclosing to you because there are too many Johnny Storm rules I've heard about from Xaviers and I don't want another - I will be his best friend and do stupid things with him." Johnny gave a small judo chop to acknowledge how deeply he felt."

Scott shook his head. "Warren thinks I'm his best friend."

"Isn't he?"

"Jean was."

"You can't have a girl as a best friend."

"Why?"

"Just can't. Look at Reed."

"Reed's cool. For an older guy."

"Scott, I think his best friend is Dr. Doom. Don't be that guy."

"Okay."

"Seriously, Bobby and I talk you and Reed a lot. We actually want to set you up on a friend date because we feel you guys can do better."

"Wait, I thought Bobby's best friend was Hank?"

"Bobby hasn't talked to Hank for years - don't you guys pay attention? I met up with Bobby after Matt Murdoch's Christmas Luncheon/Murder Mystery Party when he had it in Santa Barbara. I drove to Santa Monica and he told me he wasn't talking to Hank - or anybody! I found out he was in rehab for drugs - what the hell Scott! I may be so fucking high on energy drinks that I will piss neon orange for the next four years, but I'm not dumb!" Johnny stared at the bathroom door. "Speaking of, Is Warren done freshening up? If not, where's the balcony?"

As Johnny left in search of relief, Scott was left alone to wonder if he was truly becoming an old guy.

Song 1: Leaving on a Jet Plane

Song 2: You Don't Have to Call Me Sweetheart


	7. Chapter 7

**Applejack**

**Part 7: The Pomme Queen**

**-The Sun II: A Bobby Drake Production-**

"What's that on your sunglasses?"

"A girl."

"Robert."

"Don't call me that - Drake'son called me that."

"Bobby, is that the Patrick Nagel designed cover of Duran Duran's Rio?"

"How do you know who painted it?"

"Aside from having a passion for art and pop music, I know because I'm your best friend."

Bobby almost smiled. "Lady Jaye, stop driving."

The car came to a gentle. "Are you, Hank? Because you haven't spoken to me in years."

"You were in rehab for years."

"Two! I've been out for a while. And I haven't heard from you at all. I didn't do heroin, I never did coke...just prescription pills -"

"That weren't even prescribed to you!" Hank took off Bobby's sunglasses. Bobby's hands went to get them back, but Hank's arms were still apelike with hands like catcher's mitts. "Not to mention that you began to entertain suicidal thoughts and tried to carry them out?"

Bobby stopped fighting Hank's muscles and his brain and stared straight ahead in the golden desert, the sun close enough to be a balloon. "You hate me, Hank."

Hank didn't move. "No, you hate me."

"Bobby shrugged. "I'm mad. I'm angry." He turned to look at his oldest friend. "But I can't hate you, Hank."

"Can you forgive me?"

"Hank, we're in the mind of my ex-girlfriend, your ex...something, and are about to figure out how to extract the soul of her mother. I would say bygones are bygones."

Lady Jaye's doors opened. "Sirs Drake and McCoy - get out of this car and hug. That's an order."

"We have to listen to her, Hank - she's my dream car."

**-The Ocean-**

After Bert dove into the ocean, he swam for what seemed forever. Once the ocean ran out, he found a rock with New York City on it. An old New York City. Older than him, maybe even older than his mother. New York City sounded like what Bobby listened to all the time.

He knew he was in the 80's.

Bert was thrown the additional obstacle that time was not moving quite forward. Examining his situation, he felt as if he were still swimming, the crowds of people around him, floating by like schools of fish. He found where they were all exiting - Grand Central Station. Nobody paid attention to him and he swam freely against the past, looking to what was drawing him there.

He was surprised when his great-grandmother insisted that got to participate in an adventure. Bobby had begun telling Bert all about his adventures with the X-Men, most notably his friend Hank. Sometimes Bobby would throw in stories of his old girlfriend, Annie. Some of these stories, Bert was sure he wasn't old enough to hear them. He only believed that as his mother kept him shielded away from almost anything that seemed remotely interesting.

Jacqueline, as he preferred to think of her, wasn't good at communicating mentally with him as his great-grandmother was. It made it hard for him to connect with her. She could do it - she obviously had some sort of a gift, otherwise she wouldn't be able to assist in this adventure - but she turned herself off to the experience.

Nan, on the other hand, challenged him on it. And with good reason.

Bert found what he was looking for - a girl about his age crying at a payphone.

"Can I help you?" Bert Bass asked.

**-Hyperion Hotel, Present-**

"Call me a superstar."

"We're not going that far."

"Am I also going to have to high five myself?" Jubilee looked to Sean, then Monet, Emma, and then, at long last, Paige Guthrie. Sighing, she high fived herself. "Go, Jubilee. Woo Woo...woo."

"Do not take it personally, Jubilee," Emma Frost explained as she walked over to the body. "Everybody wants accolades for being able to go through life, hardly anybody receives them. Paige?"

"Yes, Ms. Frost?"

"Have you figured out a suitable husk to temporarily store Ms. St. Prix?"

Paige nodded proudly. "I had to think about this...I usually can't husk outside my body mass, and I obviously can't offer myself up-"

"Can't you?"

Paige glared at Jubilee before continuing. "So, I found a substance that would require little of my body mass, be a living structure and provide a full capsule for what is needed." Paige placed her thumb and her index finger on a few strands of hair which created a large, airy and green human shell. "Cellulose."

"Will it work?" Sean inquired, looking at her work.

"We may have to mist her for a while, but I can't see why not."

"Good job, Paige," Monet said, admiring the design.

"Hey, how come she gets an accolade just for going through life?"

"Because some have a tougher road ahead of them then others, Jubilation," Monet countered.

Emma sat in front of Jubilee. "Where did you put her?"

"Look for the memory where I listen to Sarah McLachlan for a full day in my underwear, eating pickles and Reeses Pieces."

Emma shook her head. "If there was anything I had hoped to impart on you girls it was that if your heart ever breaks, put on Edith Piaf. Your future self will thank you for not being embarrassed. Also, we need to address your diet."

**-Dundee, IL - Past-**

"Get yer clothes and and get out of my barn."

Hank woke up staring at the end of Mr. Agess's shotgun. The sun was up and Beth was no where to be found.

"There was a girl here...did you see her leave?"

"I don't see nothin' but you layin' around in my barn naked as a blue jay."

Hank grabbed his clothes. "Mr. Agess, I'm your neighbor."

Mr. Agess cocked his shotgun. "Nekkid neighbor."

Hank ran out of the barn, his clothes covering his lower torso.

"Hildy, avert yer eyes - the McCoy boy is streakin'!"

Poorly.

Hank quickly ran to the road and looked to see if the truck Beth had driven was anywhere to be seen, putting on his clothes and walking home. He still didn't know why she had to be gone before the sun came up but it was obvious to him that she managed to do just that.

Without a good-bye.

Hank replayed the moments they spent together in Mr. Agess's barn and felt his mind go warm. He thought he knew the stuff girls wanted, but Beth redefined the word "stuff". The girls he had previously fooled around with, hands under their shirts and sometimes skirts, ended not with a sense of pleasure or even accomplishment. Empty moments of flesh traded away in youth to pass the time.

With Beth, every moment seemed urgent. Two objects in the universe that were being drawn together slowly, burning each other as they passed. Not knowing if he would ever see her again, he felt sure he would long feel scorched.

"Stars and garters," Hank said as he turned into the gate to his home, shoes bouncing on his back, thoughts too lovely to belong to a farm boy jock in the midwest. "So that's what poetry is about."

**-The Sun-**

"Salem?" Annie called out, stopping Applejack. Drake'son hopped off and helped her down. "Salem?" Receiving no answer, she turned to him. "Now what?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're the one who did it before...how did it get did?"

"Well you see the sun up there?"

"Yep."

"That's your mom."

"How do I get her to get down here?"

"Call her "mom"."

"No way in hell."

"Don't be a little girl."

"Fine." Annie huffed. "Mom?"

The sun set before them, not hot and fiery but cold and icy. "Angina."

Drake'son whispered in her ear. "Don't call her a jerkface."

"What?"

"You did that last time. That's how I lost an eye."

"You lost an eye in your body in the astral plane?"

"No, she remembered and blamed me for for it and crushed my eye socket with her first."

Annie stared at the sun, brightness dimming a bit so she could she a square chinned, female figure walking to her. "What body did you guys put her into, Rogue's?"

"We gave her a robot body." Drake'son shrugged again. "It was a thing you did there."

Annie's mouth dropped open. "You mean Dr. Clay-Poole?"

"Come to think about it, yes. Why, do you do that here?"

"Yeah...uhm...there may be something I need to tell you..."

The sun waited in front of them. "You're worried about Emily?"

"Who's Emily?" Drake'son asked, looking at both Annie and the sun with his good eye.

Annie took a deep breath, "The doctor Hank dated who fixed my knee and was later discovered to have given me a hysterectomy as well and found out that she did the same to several of Hank's other girlfriends. Later, we did battle on an old set that looked like Ally McBeal for what I am assuming are for reasons. I figured out that her body wasn't organic but techno-organic, accounting for her long life. I tried to fix her, only to have her kick my ass the night before my birthday - you know, the night Bobby tried to kill himself - and lost the tip of my tongue."

**-Santa Monica, CA - Past-**

Annie leaned over the desk, alone in the apartment she shared with Jubilee. She was articulating what was once the Wernicke's area of Dr. Emily Clay-Poole's brain into a translator for the Broca area, hoping to uncover a living babelfish. She was dressed in a stained McClane and pajamas bottoms worn three days straight. She had went to bed at ten a.m. that morning and had awoken at 6 p.m.

It was about four a.m. now. Time for a Hot Pocket break.

Choosing conventional oven over the microwave, Annie grabbed a bottle of apple juice, admiring it's apple shaped container. It wasn't as good as the homemade juice from the gyro place up the street, but Annie and the Pita Pit weren't keeping the same hours.

The phone began to ring. At this time, it was either Jubilee, needing a ride home from another date she didn't want to end with breakfast or Xaviers on the east coast.

"Jubilee?" she hoped.

"Still staying up late?"

"Hi, Hank. Can I help?"

She heard him take a deep breath. "What was Gwen's last name?"

Annie focused on her enunciation, taking care not to lisp. "From _Passions_?"

"Yes."

"Is the internet out?"

"No."

"Hotchkith-Hotchkiss. Sorry, I'm...tired," she lied, embarrassed about the slip.

"I understand."

Annie frowned as she realized he wasn't going to hang up. "How's McCoy's Pond?"

"Splendid! Splendid. I think Harpo is trying to seduce me."

"Hot."

"How's Jubilee?"

"Jubilee likes girls."

"Jubilee doesn't like girls."

"She's not a little girl, Hank, and she wants to prove that. Desperately." Annie was proud of the articulation of her tongue.

"How are you doing?"

"Great," she lied again.

"Working on Forge's programming dream journal?"

"Did you know that's actually what his idea log is named?"

"Well?"

"There's a few that interest me...I think I have ideas on how to conjure them up. I emailed a few people to get some information - hey, does Tony Stark have two email addresses?

"Why do you ask?"

"Because I sent a question to the one you gave me -"

"tstark at starkent dot com? That's his."

"That's the one. I get an email back from indy at raidersofthelostarkomgihavesomuchmoney dot com."

"That is also his his."

"Then we write again and it's at a dotdot."

"...you got the .dot address?"

"Is that a thing now?"

"Very few people have a .dot address. Tony was rumored to be one of the few who had one - can you tell me what it is-"

"Tony's signature was very clear in that I couldn't tell anyone the actual address but was free to spread around that he does, in fact, have a .dot address and, if possible, tell Justin Hammer about it with the attached picture of Tony and Silver Sable sharing a dessert from Serendipity, inspired by Marianne and Mick style."

"...you wouldn't want to-"

"The attachment can only be opened by a password that only Justin would know."

"...did you crack it-"

"I did and now I have a .dot address invitation. And before you ask, you can have neither." Annie smiled. "I can hear you basking at your protégé."

"You know that Kitty tried to hack the code for that attachment and gave up."

"I'm sure Wolverine didn't care one way or the other if she could, though."

"Anyone who has seen Sable has some vested interest in this photo." Hank cleared his throat. "You're probably right, though. I, however, do care. I'm very proud of you, Annie."

Annie beamed, opening the conventional oven for her Hot Pocket. "Still not going to get either...or information on Tony's fourth email address."

"A fourth?"

"I think this one is less common because it was a forwarded Evite for a party being thrown by Matt Murdoch. Doesn't he know that a lot of people realize he's Daredevil?"

"Matt's Matt, Annie. Matt's Matt." Annie could hear Hank at his keyboard. "Huh. Matt usually just does a luncheon..."

"So this is the first annual Murder Mystery party?"

"Are you going?"

"I wasn't actually invited, I was forwarded the Evite."

"You could crash."

"I could pass." Annie took a bite of her Hot Pocket, not wanting to wait for it to cool down.

"You could-"

Annie felt something else in her mouth. "Hank, I need to go." She hung up her phone, left the Hot Pocket in the kitchen and went to the bathroom. She stuck out her tongue. "Fuck." It grew back. Grafted and grown from the back of her fleshy pink tongue was a shiny, techno-organic tongue.

Again.

Annie went back to the kitchen for the solution that always had to be done in the end and found her small paring knife. She had tried a butcher knife at first, but they didn't cut sharply so much as bluntly. She found that out the hard way. Scissors were next and they didn't so much perforate as they did prove ineffective, and she had to turn to the butcher knife again. Then, after slicing beef for a stir-fry, noting the ease of the small paring knife with a Japanese brand skated through the flesh, changed her weapon of choice and had worked so quickly and efficiently that slicing off the tip of her tongue was like brushing her teeth after breakfast - disciplined and hygienic.

Annie placed her chin against the cutting board and laid her tongue flat.

_Shik._


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:** I have begun to mention faxing a lot. Aside from being an absolute embarrassment in front of superior communication outlets, it is a reference to an aside I wrote during "Six Seeds" called "Get the Message" which first references Bobby's love of faxing. It's also touched on the second part of "Pixie, Perv, Protector" (one of the most read stories of the ESILY series).

**Applejack**

**By Mice**

**Chapter 7: A Drowning Grip**

**-Hyperion Hotel, New York, Current-**

Jubilee walked out on the balcony to be alone.

"Yoo hoo." She was not as it looked like Johnny Storm was at the balcony next to hers.

"Shouldn't you be in bed by now, Storm? Tucked under the cover of a hot girl or something?"

"Bobby and I were drinking energy drinks for two hours straight. I'm finally coming down...and have been taking the world's longest piss in this jasmine bush for the past half hour."

Jubilee made a face. "There are bathrooms, Storm."

"Warren took over the one in here."

"Say no more," Jubilee answered, knowing that Warren's one true love was a well-lit hotel room mirror, and then frowned. "Bobby shouldn't be involved in all of this."

"THANK YOU!" Johnny cleared his throat. "Sorry, that was mostly the energy drinks talking, but seriously, thank you! How does nobody else see who massively fucked up it is to have that guy roaming around in the head of his ex-girlfriend?"

"Not to mention Hank's in there - you know they haven't talked in-"

"YEARS. And nobody finds that weird? Bobby was in rehab and nobody told me. Wait, why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't get my fax?"

"...about three years ago, Reed went on a _Science!_ tear."

"What does that mean?"

"He went around the Four Freedoms Plaza offices and removed everything he deemed an abomination to science. The fax machines were the first to go. He even screams _Science!_ as he's doing it." It was Johnny's turn to frown. "What if Bobby sent me a fax from rehab and that's why I didn't know? Damn it, why did I have to be such an idiot and abuse the fax machine like that?"

"Don't worry, Storm. You're a good friend."

"I don't feel like one."

"You know, I was Bobby's best friend, too. Not like you or Hank, but..." Jubilee felt her throat tighten. "I really fucked everything up. I think I was the last person to talk to him before he tried killing himself. I didn't make it better, I just made it worse." Her eyes became wet. "I'm the bad friend."

Johnny got up on the ledge of the balcony and jumped over to hers. "He told me what happened between you two. You can't tell him I told you this but you gotta know, Jubilee, he isn't proud of himself. He blames himself for how he wrecked your life."

"How I wrecked my life?"

"That's per him. He was worried because you were centering so many calls and emails his way that you weren't focused on your own life."

"I went to college while he was in rehab. I re-joined the X-Men and mentored his alternate dimension doppelganger into the ways of our world. How is my life unfocused? I mean, if my life were truly wrecked, I could only hope to have a friend like me, who cares enough to stop at nothing to get through my friend. That's what friends do." Jubilee shook her head. "Unbelievable."

"That's what I said when I met up with him in Santa Monica. Because you weren't the only one who got hysterical." Johnny punched the brick wall. "Why were we the only ones who noticed?"

"Because we're the only ones who understand that what Bobby shows on the surface is mostly fake. Fake outrage about minor shit. Constant distractions to amuse other people...we're the people most like him, Storm, because I don't know about you and despite what I said, my life feels like a goddamn wreck right now."

Johnny nodded. "Mine, too."

**-Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA - Past-**

Annie and Sean walked gingerly down the path. She had just returned from New York from another one of Matt Murdoch's parties, which Sean refused to attend. Annie never forced the issue.

"Set up here?"

"Sure, luv."

Annie set down the bag of equipment and pulled out two mitts. She tossed one to Sean. She warmed up her right shoulder and arm, holding the ball.

"I'm ready when ye are."

"Just need a moment...slept in the worst way on the plane." And was very hung-over. She left for Los Angeles after waking up at Hank's retreat. How many more times was she going to dare him to respond to her? She was engaged, she had messed up one of his best friends, how much more could she fuck up Hank's life by just being in it?

Annie tossed the ball lightly to Sean as they warmed up their connection. Sometimes his pitch was too wild and she scolded him lightly for thinking he had a good curve ball. Sean yelled back at her warmly.

What was different in her relationship with Sean from the other men in Annie's past was how he took care of her. Lindsay had treated her as a slowly orbiting gnat that he recognized as being there but never swatting it away fully. Bobby withdrew as his depression grew and pushed her away. Dr. Chris Knight was more interested in being seen with a "hot designated driver" than with her. And where Hank teased at her being labeled his protégé, Sean had taught Annie a lot.

There was also the difference in how Sean needed her. Annie had begun to decipher why she had seemed to have observed some of Bobby's memories that triggered his ice powers. It began when at a party in Bel Air after she had first become intimate with Chris. He smiled as he talked to a group of people and pointed to her. A memory sliced its way into her mind - "She doesn't need to be attractive, just show up with a woman and another, better woman will present themselves to you. Test it out."

It was advice from one brother given to another - one in high school, the other nine with no clue what to do with a woman. She knew this was a major part of how Chris thought about her because it felt hot on her skin, the way the most intimate and honest memories did.

Sean tried for another curve ball. Annie always knew when he was going to try - every time, no matter how she explained that she would know through her own, non-spy training, he still believed he could fool her. Once in a while (because of his spy training), and she would pretend that he did. Out of love.

Annie, feigning surprise, ran to get the ball.

"I told ya you couldn't always tell!" He ran after her, catching her, hugging her, kissing her head.

That was how Sean loved her.

"Yep, fooled me, Sean."

A memory sliced through her mind - "Her name is Theresa."

Annie figured she made the perfect cypher for the daughter who didn't grow up with a father figure. Sean was always positive about his relationship with Theresa, but the fact that she did have a father figure growing up left him with unresolved desires.

That made Annie the perfect little girl for Sean to love.

**-The Sun, The Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh-**

Salem, burning like the sun, walked closer to Drake'son and Annie. "I didn't think Hannah could do it...be able to put me here or to even be able to fix it."

"Yeah, well, we haven't fixed anything yet," Annie said, arms crossed.

"We may not be able to." Salem turned and pointed to a dark spot in the sky.

"What's that?" Annie asked both Salem and Drake'son.

"That is part of Emily. She's been keeping guard of your mind since she bonded herself to you."

"I guess that would be the technical term for it," Annie sighed. "Why guarding?"

"She says that if I got out, I would cause too many problems."

Annie shrugged. "That sounds about right to me. You know, nobody ever asked me if I wanted to my mother back."

"It's not just about what you want or don't want, Angina."

Several memories sliced sharply through Annie's head about her mother's feelings of what she gave up to give birth to her child. Some made sense; some were just in vengeful cheapness.

"I wouldn't recommend the two of you getting too emotional in here," Drake'son explained. "Annie, you've seen the effect of you engaging emotionally with Hank. Salem has had more experience being in here. If you two keep fighting, you could get hurt or worse."

"Fine by me!" they answered.

Drake'son squinted out into the desert as a gold Ford Escort made its way to them. "Annie...I apologize for what you are about to see."

**-The Sun II, A Bobby Drake Production-**

_I wish I was in Tijuana_

_Eating barbequed iguana_

"Look! It's Drake'son and Annie!"

Bobby smiled. "Time to make the donuts."

_I'd take requests on the telephone_

_I'm on a wavelength far from home_

**-The Sun-**

Drake'son quickly explained what Bobby had been up to before they parted. "And I sense he's not very happy with me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait." Annie shook her head. "Bobby gets his fantasy car in MY head while I get to deal with this?" she complained gesturing to her mother.

"Instead of complaining about it, Angina, why don't you best him at using the potential that's just lying around in here?"

Annie glared at Salem as the gold Ford Escort grew closer, Bobby's mulleted head sticking out from the driver's side, both fists pumping in the air.

"Don't worry, it also drives itself," Drake'son explained.

"I'm well aware of what goes into Bobby's Lady Jaye, daughter of K.I.T.T., fantasy, thank you very much."

"You know, that car is headed straight towards us," Salem pointed out.

The car tore through the middle of their gathering, all three separated.

Drake'son shouted, "Go off! He only wants me!"

Annie heard him but couldn't see anything due to the dust trails around her. "We should stick together!" She felt someone grab her arm and pulled her away. "Drake'son?"

No answer, she felt herself being led away from the scene. "Salem?"

The dust began to settle and she felt her arm being released. Soon, she saw a black door in the middle of the desert. "What is this for?"

"Why don't we find out, Annie." The dust cleared and she saw a human Hank McCoy hold out his hand. Not a centaur, not a Miami Vice reject, but old fashioned farm boy Hank McCoy. "For science."

**-St. Prix Services; New York City - Past-**

"Who said I was looking for new assassins?" asked Anagiovanna St. Prix, smoking a cigarette in a silver holder.

"Look, lady, I hightailed the hell outta Illinois and took a whore bath in a Sherry's at the state line to make this interview. Don't play coy. I want the job."

"No, you need the job. The question is do I need you. Would you like a cigarette...?" Anagiovanna glanced at her calendar to refresh her mind in regards to her guest's name. "Maribeth?"

"Just Beth and...what the hell."

Anagiovanna offered her a cigarette from her silver case. "You are adventurous."

"That's the nicest way anyone has ever called me a screw up." Beth lit the cigarette with a silver lighter on the desk. "The only thing I seem to be good at is messing up people's lives."

"Do you have a lover?"

She shook her head no. "I have experience. That's better than to be tied to some schmuck."

Anagiovanna shook her head approvingly. "You're an orphan."

"I'm blessed like that."

"I meant no offense. I, too, am orphaned. Lost my parents in the great war."

"Lost mine in a car accident they had while out ridin' drunk. My brother and I were in the backseat. We were okay, but he was sent to Peoria when he turned eighteen on account he moves slower now." Beth took a deep drag on her cigarette. "I'm sure your folks were brave as shit, mine weren't. No great loss, just...all the opportunities."

"You American girls glamorize being an orphan far too much - it will become common and then how will you be special?" Anagiovanna nodded once. "I will take you on. My older girls will show you what you need to know. You will need to be at my beck and call. I tell you this from experience; relationships from outside my firm do not end well." Anagiovanna took out picture of two women on a rooftop from her desk drawer. "Do you see that woman, Beth?"

"Yes."

"That's me with one of the old girls. She didn't follow my rules and she got hurt. She ended up with no love, no family."

"Seems to have lived a long life."

"You're looking at the wrong woman." Anagiovanna smiled. "That was me then."

Beth looked at the picture of the petite old woman with blonde hair next to the square chinned, gapped tooth auburn haired woman with green eyes - the one that was actually across from her.

"I've been that woman, I've been this woman. I've been a countess, I've been a whore. I've played many roles for a very long time, but do you know which title I've had that I remain the most proud of?"

Beth smiled. "A survivor."

"That is what I love about you American orphans. I don't have to teach you what is behind the hoax because you grew up not believing it in the first place." Anagiovanna picked up the phone. "Emily? We have a new girl."


	9. Chapter 9

**Applejack**

**By Mice**

**Part 9: Time's a Wastin'**

**-Behind the Black Door - Astral Plane-**

Hank led Annie to a seat in the theatre. They were the only patrons. "Ever since we kissed here, all I have thought about is the physics that apply. As a senior X-Men, I've had my fair share of adventures in astral related and yet, there is something here that's different."

"What's that?" Annie was disappointed that his mind had turned to physics and not on the kiss they had shared. Not to mention lack of follow through of certain promises, though she was sure Hank's fidelity was more to science than she.

"You're a dangerous woman, Annie Peckenpaugh." Hank turned more toward her. "A man has to be careful around you. Haunted eyes, anticipating smile...an orphaned siren who doesn't know that she's supposed to be bad." The movie screen began to flicker. "This astral plane has been listening to some of the darker aspects of my nature. On surface, I'm always afraid that I will devolve ever bestial. I never confide my idea that sometimes, I find that my humanity contains what I should truly be fearful of."

Annie squinted at the screen. "We're watching your memories."

"This is the week you left Xavier's. Jean and Scott took Bobby to a rehab facility further upstate. His approved visitor list didn't include me. It did include you."

Annie dared not to turn to look at Hank. "Are you cleaning up from a party?"

"It was going to be your graduation/birthday party. I had talked to the Professor and we agreed that you had achieved a point of recognition and introduction."

Annie saw the simple decor - snippets of a biography of her life displayed, a picture of her green and white Pallas Patriots softball uniform. A letter of scholarship from Western State University.

"How did you find those items?"

"I talked to your grandmother. A very lovely lady, by the way. I picked them up while on my way to a conference in Denver."

Annie frowned. "You went back to Pallas?"

"I really need to show you Dunfee one day. It's not a terrible place" Hank paused. "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?"

Annie felt a warm numbness in her head. "I called you when I settled in Santa Monica..." Annie's voice trailed as the movie went from the party to Hank in his lab on the phone.

_Patricia, this is Dr. McCoy. I will take the estate on the south, where the black swans landed at sunset...no, I'm afraid that my assistant is no longer with me...I don't know if I'll get another one...she wasn't my girlfriend...my best friend's girlfriend, actually...he's in rehab...does this mean I don't get the estate?...I know Matt Murdoch, yes...how many houses away, again?...I think I'll be fine...thanks, Patricia. See you Sunday._

The scene changed to sunset at the estate. Hank stared at the pond and saw the black swans flying in.

"I've been holed up at that estate with Harpo ever since. Every sunset, those swans land and I wish that you were there to see it. Sometimes, I even pretend that you are there. We've given the swans lives, names. I named the female Eliza. You named the male -"

"Hans."

Hank closed his eyes. "Exactly."

"The minute you mentioned the swans, I named the male."

The scene continued.

_Good night, Eliza. Good night, Hans._

"I loved a girl with green eyes before I had met you. She was poor and troubled. She never said goodbye, either." Hank kept his eyes closed as the screen went black. "Our time together has brought this forgotten mass to the surface, and when you left, it detonated."

A montage of women in bed with Hank began on the screen.

"All auburn haired, green-eyed girls. Some are named Beth."

"The others, Eliza?" Annie steadied herself, feeling hot on her neck and butterflied in her stomach.

"I couldn't call them by your name." Hank stared at her. "But I'm still ashamed."

"You were too ashamed to tell me what was really going on." Annie turned to look at him, his eyes still closed.

"Annie, when I tell you we can't do this, it's not because I don't want it."

"It's because you only feel comfortable when covered in shame." Annie frowned. "Was the fantasy of the idea really more appealing than taking a chance that I could actually be there? I have thrown myself at you a few times now, Hank. Why not take it and start over?"

"You will outgrow me."

"Ridiculous."

"You should hear the pizza room at Tony's for Sunday football. Do you know Clint Barton?"

"Hawkeye? No."

"He seems to know you. In detail. Also, how well do you know Tony?"

"We email a lot."

"Do you know that you are now subject to the new hacking riddle, where the clue is _Annie Peckenpaugh love's lace_."

"So?"

"They think it's a picture of you..." Hank paused. "This is crude."

"Wait, do they think I'm deep throating Tony?"

Hank nodded.

"He took me through an exhibit of Ada Lovelace that's going to be showing at the Met next month. It was an engagement gift!" Annie smiled. "See, none of you ever saw that picture of Tony and Sable. Marianne and Mick style referred to an actual Mars bar, not the fabled destination spot."

Hank took a long time to nod. "I might owe Tony an apology." He looked at her sheepishly. "I definitely owe you one."

Annie bit her lip. "I'm sorry I didn't say good-bye. I thought that it would be a relief to you if I had gone."

"I was going to ask you to come with me to that estate during your party. If you had turned me down, I would have gone alone, leaving you alone with your relationship to Bobby."

"What if you had known all that had gone down between me and Bobby?"

Hank shook his head. "I could have spared you living in an apartment with Jubilee."

"...damn it!"

**-Grand Central Station Under the Sea-**

Bert led a tear filled seven year-old Annie Peckenpaugh to the phone booth.

"I don't know his number."

"How did you think he was going to meet you?"

"My aunt told me he would be waiting for me so I should look for him." Annie frowned. "I can't believe I fell for that..."

Bert worried that she'd start crying again and directed her to the phone book. "What did you say his last name was?"

"Peckenpaugh."

"How many could there be?"

Annie nodded - she was the only one she knew of in her hometown. How many people were in New York City anyway?

She dropped a quarter in and dialed. "Is this Mr. Peckenpaugh?"

**-Hyperion Hotel, Present-**

Sean looked up from his guitar as he saw a man enter the suite. "Can I help ye?"

The man ignored him and went straight to where Annie was sleeping and went to touch her head. "Such strangefate..."

Sean got up. "I said, can I help ye?"

"Are they okay? Has anything happened?"

Sean put a hand on his shoulder forcefully. "As far as I know, they're fine. Who are ye and why are ye here?"

"That's my daughter, the one you're marrying tomorrow." Frankie held out his hand. "Good to meet you, Mr. Cassidy."

"So yer Dr. Strangefate." Sean removed his hand from his future father-in-law's shoulder and took his. His hand, in contrast to Sean's, felt as if it were made of paper porcelain.

"She's spoken about me?" His eyes lit up with dim hope.

"Who's here?" Scott asked as he entered, interrupting the conversation.

"And where in bloody hell were ye? I thought you were protectin' them!"

"Warren finally left the bathroom. I've been gone for all of two minutes." Scott nodded to the tall, thin, older man. "Who's that?"

"Dr. Stangefate, Mr. Summers...I think we've met at your recent birthday party/murder mystery." Frankie held out his hand.

Sean nodded towards the older man. "He's Annie's father."

Scott paused before taking Dr. Strangefate's hand. "...are you a space pirate?"

Dr. Strangefate shook his head slow. "Scientist. Podcaster."

Scott nodded and shook hands with his friend's father. While scientist and podcaster were cool professions, Scott's dad was a space pirate. And some days, that knowledge was the self-esteem that helped him get out of bed.

Frankie stared at his daughter. "I was told that...is it true that her mother is there with her?"

"That's what all these people are here trying to find out."

"Such strangefate. You know...I wasn't even supposed to come to New York City. There was a child prodigy in the lab back in Odense, Hermes Olsson. His ambition was to meet a real American prostitute...but he suffered a very premature stroke a week before he was supposed to leave. I was chosen to go because I was the next youngest." Dr. Strangefate shook his head. "What would have happened if Young Hermes had run into Salem instead of I. Would he have noticed her if she hadn't just..." Dr. Strangefate replayed the memory of them crashing into each other in his head and felt his mouth tighten briefly. "Has she ever mentioned me? Or her mother?"

"She's quite the fan of your podcast," Sean offered. "She suffers with her mother."

"So did I." Dr. Strangefate softened his mouth. "She used to be a cage dancer at a night club. I would meet her there to walk her home from work. She used to wear this cowgirl outfit that would reek by the end of her shift. One night, she had an extraordinary red feather sticking out from it. She said Andy Warhol a had brought in a rooster after getting kicked out of another club. Salem fought Warhol's rooster for fifty dollars. She took the feather as a trophy. And her arms were bright red with painful red scratches, but if they hurt, she didn't care. She just wanted me to say how pretty the feather looked and listen to her story about how she refused to do cocaine with Andy."

Scott nodded. Cage dancing cock fighter who could have done cocaine with Andy Warhol was the female equivalent to space pirate.

**-The Sun-**

"Ow."

"Ow."

"Ow."

"OW!"

"..ow."

Salem, flaming like the sun, held Bobby Drake and Drake'son by the tip of the ear. "I will let go of you boys if you promise not to destroy each other."

"I promise."

"He's lying! You can tell by his mustache!"

"We both know that neither of us can grow a mustache due to our Swedish heritage!"

"Thanks, great-grandmother Ulla Drake."

"Boys?"

"You can let us go."

Drake'son and Bobby rubbed their ears and turned to Salem, flames cooling.

"Is that a Phoenix force?"

"A what?"

"Phoenix force. You know...caw!" Bobby made a sound of what he thought a Phoenix would sound like. Neither Salem or Drake'son thought it sounded like a Phoenix.

She looked at them, unsure of her future. "You boys going to help me get out of here?"

"Sure are, ma'am," Drake'son answered, being very respectful.

"Good. Because I got to talk about with Dr. Strangefate."

A silver metallic figured moved closer to the group of Bobby, Drake'son and Salem, casting a long shadow.

Salem waved. "Hi, Emily."

**-Grand Central Station Under the Sea-**

"Sorry, didn't mean to bother you." Annie hung up the phone. "Great, I think I just broke up someone's marriage."

Bert ripped the page out of the phone book. "Come on. Let's go explore the city. We'll find him."

**-The Sun-**

"You know her?" Bobby pointed to the figure who came closer to them.

"She was my roommate."

"I was more than that, Salem, I saved your life." Dr. Emily Clay-Poole turned to Bobby. "And we were teammates for two weeks, Bobby."

Bobby frowned. "To be honest? The first few days, I thought you were a realtor who was trying to rent out the place and had no other place to be."

Emily turned her attention back to Salem. "You know, Salem, I did I make sure your child was safe."

"My child was supposed to be raised by a Jewish accountant! How did she get to Wyoming?"

"It was the safest place for her, Salem! It was the last place Anagiovanna expected her to be. She would have been a high profile target with Mr. Bass, who is not an amazingly gifted empath."

"She grew up ignored and feeling unloved. I've been in here, absorbing as much of her pain as I can, but it's too much."

Bobby stepped up to the two of them. "You know, Mrs. Peckenpaugh-"

"Just call me, Salem, Bobby. It's complicated."

"Salem. Ah...not to shit on any of your points, but you're daughter turned out pretty great. My cousin Holland? Raised by my uncle. Not the most fun person in the universe. And if anything hurt your daughter, well, it was having you up here and all the confusion with her father. Just my two cents." Bobby cleared his throat. "Also, you can disagree, but Drake'son and I have an agreement about this mental adventure we are having in her head."

"We're here for Annie. Not you."

Drake'son nodded. "It's this and _Breakfast at Tiffany's_. Those are the things we got."

"I'm here for my daughter, too," Salem explained. "And to have a long talk with her father."

"Do you really think that he'll even remember you after all these years, Salem?"

"Cram it, tin lady. He'll remember me."

"As the woman who gave him a child she hid from him."

Salem blazed towards Emily. "Say one more word..."

Drake'son spoke up. "Dr. Peckenpaugh did know about Annie. She said she came to New York when she was seven...she called him from the bus station and he told her he couldn't come and that she was on her own.

Salem stared down Emily. "That's why I didn't send her to Pallas. My sister tried to do the same thing to me when we were kids - convinced we weren't related. I trusted in Jacob's bland existence!"

Emily shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Once Anagiovanna wakes up in this new body, you will extinguished."

"This new body?" Bobby held up his hands, "You mean she's going to take up living up here?"

"She's done it countless times." Emily narrowed her eyes and smiled at Salem. "She even took your body out for a spin until it gave out. And now, she's going to do it to your daughter."

"How do we stop it?" Drake'son asked, gold armor returning.

"You can't. Hannah can't, either. All of you when you return back will be so tired that will barely be able to perform the most basic of function. She has a bodyguard on the outside in one of your people who will not think twice about killing you."

"How do we know which one?" Bobby asked.

Emily blinked. "You know, Bobby, we were on a team together. Two weeks. I know that being a New Defender wasn't a huge deal for you, but it's the one thing I have, aside from being the right hand of a head of an all female assassin's guild."

"See, that second thing? Way better than ever being called a New Defender. It sounds like you were side pimping."

Salem stared at Bobby. "Just tell her."

Bobby took a deep breath. "We were once New Defenders together."

Emily nodded. Then sighed. "You were right, it isn't that amazing sounding. The guard will be in whoever went in to retrieve Anagiovanna."

"I don't know who was doing that - Drake'son?"

"No clue."

"I know," Salem answered.

"You will have a few seconds to distract them before anything happens."

"Salem, who do we need to distract?"

"Jubilee."

Drake'son turned and smiled at Bobby. "I have an idea. What should we do about -"

Salem saw where Drake'son was looking at and disintegrated Emily with flames. "I was just waiting to see if she knew anything. Look...here comes Annie and Hank."

**-The Sun, Further Away-**

"Looks like we're going back soon."

Annie gripped his hand very tightly. "I'm getting married soon."

"I know." Hank gripped her hand tighter.

"I won't. I won't if you ask me to."

"I don't think that anything I promise in here I can follow through out there. Being inside someone's mind...this time...has been some what holy. If I make a promise to you here, I'll be beholden to it...to you forever."

Annie nodded.

"However...if I remain as emboldened as I do right now...I will send you a message."

"What message?"

Hank kissed the top of her head. "You'll know it when you get it. Be brave, Annie."

**-The Ocean, New York City, NY-**

"I don't know about this, Bert..."

"Be brave, Annie."

Annie pressed the button on the call box to dial the apartment.

**-Hyperion Hotel, Present-**

Scott handed the phone to Dr. Strangefate. "I think this is for you."

Strangefate took the phone. "This is Dr. St-This is Frankie Peckenpaugh. Who is this?"

_My name is Annie Peckenpaugh. I'm seven years-old and I could be your daughter. Could you let me and my friend in?_

Strangefate nodded. "I can't ring you up, but you can punch the code - #1247. I'm in apartment 12C. I look forward to seeing you, Annie."

"Annie?" Scott asked.

Strangefate nodded. "Mr. Summers - when that door knocks, make sure everyone is where they should be. They're coming back."


End file.
